With today’s rapidly expanding IoT spectrum people are becoming increasingly connected. Not only through content and social media forums but also through health and wellness. One of the most prevalent ways this is happening is through the use of personal health wearables. This could be smart watches, fitness bands, or even smart clothing. All of these devices promise the notion of continually being dialed into a better level of health and wellness. For the most part, this is true! These devices are not only increasing in popularity, but also in technical capabilities. Some of the new exciting features being offered include: tracking of sleep patterns, heart rate monitoring, activity trackers, blood glucose levels, blood pressure tracking, etc. The possibilities of increased personal healthcare technology is virtually endless.
However, with new, innovative capabilities we are beginning to see an increased risk in personal security. With continual growth in popularity and more common use of IoT technology in personal health we open ourselves up to more room for manipulation. Mass gathering of personal health data could threaten the privacy of consumer health information as well as be utilized by healthcare related companies, nonprofit organizations, academic institutions, insurance agencies, and pharmaceutical companies to further target specific groups of people and develop new approaches to increase profits.
Considering that the use of personal wearable health devices and the realm of IoT in general is still relatively new, fine tuning the security for such devices must be of prime importance. As consumers in today’s society we must be sure to always be aware of our device’s connectivity and possibility of a data breach. If you are interested in reading more about the phenomena threatening your personal healthcare devices here are a few articles that delve further into these risks:
Personal health wearable devices raise new privacy security risks, report reveals
