Data Protection Officer criticizes fitness apps of the health insurance companies

Beware of passing on health data through fitness apps
The Federal Data Protection Commissioner Andrea Voßhoff warns against fitness apps from private health insurance companies. The sensitive data could later be used to calculate risk premiums, such as poor health. The fitness apps sometimes pass on heart rate data, dietary habits and training status to the health insurance companies.

Private health insurers could use data from fitness apps to calculate future risk premiums
Health apps on smartphones, tablets and smartwatches are becoming increasingly popular. However, many users do not think that the data collected by the app are very sensitive in part. For example, evaluations of the heart rate, training status or eating behavior were carried out, Voßhoff explained to the news agency "dpa" on Thursday in Berlin. Even the complete medical history can be raised according to the Federal Data Protection Commissioner.

Apparently insufficient data protection for fitness apps. Image: Syda Productions - fotolia

Some private health insurers would provide financial benefits for the disclosure of the app data, which attracted especially young people. But that carries risks. For example, health data could be estimated via the data and future risk premiums calculated, profile-specific offers submitted or the range of services adjusted, according to Voßhoff. She advises all users to be careful with their health data. Short-term financial benefits should be weighed against long-term risks.

For fitness apps of public health insurance companies, data may only be collected in certain cases
Meanwhile, some health insurance companies offer health and fitness apps. Here the advantage lies in the fact that the legal insurers are only allowed to collect personal data of their insured persons in certain cases, explains the Federal Data Protection Officer. In this way, users are protected by law from disclosing sensitive health information.

Recently, researchers at the Freiburg University Hospital on behalf of the Techniker Krankenkasse (TK) tested a total of 379,000 apps from the fields of medicine, fitness and nutrition. Their conclusion: Many of them are no good. The co-author of the TK study, Ursula Kramer, advises to check before using a health app, whether a privacy statement and information is contained, showing how the app is funded. Lack of such information, one should rather keep away from it, so Kramer. (Ag)