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21% of Large Employers Collect Health Information From Employees' Mobile Apps or Wearable Devices, Report Says (axios.com) 76

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
An anonymous reader writes: The Kaiser Family Foundation's annual review of employer-based insurance shows that 21% of large employers collect health information from employees' mobile apps or wearable devices, as part of their wellness programs -- up from 14% last year. Wellness programs are voluntary, and so is contributing your health information to them. But among companies that offer a wellness program, just 9% of employers (including 35% of large employers) offer workers an incentive to participate.
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21% of Large Employers Collect Health Information From Employees' Mobile Apps or Wearable Devices, Report Says More

21% of Large Employers Collect Health Information From Employees' Mobile Apps or Wearable Devices, Report Says

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  • Excesses of for-profit health care (Score:4, Insightful)

    by sinij ( 911942 ) on Tuesday October 09, 2018 @02:22PM (#57451932)
    US for-profit health care directly responsible for this. If your main business function is insurance, then your main business driver is to minimize the risks and recover costs. Then it becomes logical to exploit personal information of your "customers" and violate their privacy to the maximum possible extend.
  • With everyone and their mother now tracking their vitals on something worn around their wrists, I'm kind of surprised it's not north of 30% already.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dj245 ( 732906 )

      With everyone and their mother now tracking their vitals on something worn around their wrists, I'm kind of surprised it's not north of 30% already.

      It may be higher than that. I've had a couple credit cards get stolen in the last few years. In both cases, the fraud department caught it on the 1st or 2nd fraudulent transaction. These weren't particularly obvious- in both cases, they were swiped at a physical businesses less than 40 miles from my house.

      I suspect that the credit card companies are buying location data from somebody.

      Just because they are using opt-in methods on their own app doesn't mean they aren't also using purchased data from so

      • Not necessarily -- someone could have passed a lot of stolen CCs at a given location/time, rendering all transactions of that type suspect.

      • It may be higher than that. I've had a couple credit cards get stolen in the last few years.

        Hmmmm, thinks. I can't remember that happening since the rush-hour underground in Athens in about 2009.

        If it's happening to you on a nearly yearly basis ... I suspect you need to review your personal security behaviours. I do plenty of dodgy things in dodgy places. But I leave the cards in a tamper-evident bag, locked in the safe and use cash while I'm doing it.

  • ... then location information. And if location information, then a wealth of information about everything from various preferences to religious practices to social life.

    I guess that the best one can hope for now is that one has a good owner.

    • ... then location information. And if location information, then a wealth of information about everything from various preferences to religious practices to social life.

      If you have time to practice religion or have a social life . . . you obviously aren't working enough. Your management will be notified that you need to be assigned more work.

      Speaking of practicing religion . . . do these devices track your sex life, as well . . . ?

      "Your medical data tracking shows that . . . during our company wide "mandatory all hands" two hour conference call . . . you were having one off the wrist."

      "This is important for our company to know, because you will go blind from all tho

  • They tried that at my job.
    But there was no benefits for you to participate in it.
    Not even a price reduction. Just a CHANCE to win something.
  • But this company is self insured and has an insurance company monitor and pay claims. We get breaks off our premiums if we participate in the wellness program.
    Why people think this is a bad thing, I don't understand.
    It's not like insurance companies don't already have your health information on file, now is it?

    • Re:I work for a Fortune 100, we have this (Score:5, Insightful)

      by b0s0z0ku ( 752509 ) on Tuesday October 09, 2018 @02:49PM (#57452074)
      Because you need to wear a tracking device to get breaks (i.e. not by financially fucked). You can be the healthiest person in the world, walk 10 miles a day, but unless you do it at an approved gym or allow yourself to be tracked like a carrier pigeon, they still fuck you financially. Yet another argument for socialized healthcare -- this crap is unheard of in Europe or Canada, where healthy and unhealthy habits are encouraged/discouraged via taxes built into their costs. (i.e. cigarette taxes, taxes on processed foods, etc)

      • e healthy and unhealthy habits are encouraged/discouraged via taxes built into their costs. (i.e. cigarette taxes, taxes on processed foods, etc)

        Oh, those are in the US too. But they're called sin taxes and the money just goes into the general fund for whatever.

        • In sane countries like Canada, the tax money also funds public health insurance. No need to be intrusive if you can just anonymously tax "bad" habits. I'd much rather pay a sales tax (anonymously, in cash) than be tracked 24/7/365.

      • Socialized medicine? You are correct. The government will f you over, but harder and with much more gusto. And who will you complain to? Right, the government? SOL at that point.

        • The government is more accountable to privacy laws -- employers will just say "if you don't like it, pay more or find another job."

          Also, there's less incentive for government to mandate this kind of crap because they can use sin taxes and tax breaks to control health policies.

        • The government will f you over, but harder and with much more gusto. And who will you complain to?

          My ballot.

          If an insurance company does something you don't like, who are you going to complain to?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Corbets ( 169101 )

        My Swiss insurer gives me a discount for data collected from my Apple Watch. It’s not unheard of over here.

        You Americans and your sweeping generalizations!

      • "taxes on processed foods" triggered me... Some processed foods are good for you, and some unprocessed foods are bad for you. "Processed" in and of itself means nothing. Our cat was fed nothing but heavily processed cat food and lived to 21, which is 142 in cat years, while cats in the wild don't live nearly as long on 100% natural, unprocessed rats and other rodents, in their 100% natural environment.

    • Meaning that they monetise your data to make up for the "shortfall" in giving you a "discount" on your premiums. Bonus being it isn't your data anyway. It's theirs, so they can do whatever gets them the most money from it.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        I work on benefits programs for Fortune 100 companies - 100k+ employers. The parent post is an example of someone not knowing their ass from a hole in the ground. You CANNOT sell biometric data of your employees in the US. You CANNOT sell PII of your employees in the US. If you do, everyone from the press to the feds will be all over you ass as soon as it comes out. Trust me, IT ALWAYS COMES OUT. Stop spreading the FUD.

        • You can't sell it, but you can use it internally to financially screw over your employees or otherwise "punish" them.

    • It's not like insurance companies don't already have your health information on file, now is it?

      If your employer self-insures (virtually all that have >200 employees do), then your employer has your health information too.

      Subject to various state regulations, and there are supposed to be restrictions on who can see that data and what they can do with it. Heck, they may only get aggregate information for the entire company. But if a pricey bill for chemotherapy comes in and Jim starts taking a lot of vacation time on those treatment dates, not really hard to put two and two together.

    • Why people think this is a bad thing, I don't understand.

      It's bait and switch. Most companies I've seen jacked their rate up the year that they started their wellness program, and let you "stay" at the old rate if you did the new program.

      Then of course, prices rise again - but now you are forever held to use their program and give them your data or else face retribution of them taking away your "discount". Certainly, my prices have risen more than the "discount" received from the wellness program.

  • State or national health care is needed.

    Then the state doesn't need to snoop. They can just subsidize healthy habits via tax breaks (e.g. for gyms, reduced hikers' fees at national/state parks, no sales tax on healthy/unprocessed food) while taxing the hell out of unhealthy habits (encourage walking vs driving via congestion fees, tax cigarettes, tax weed, tax booze). Say what you will about taxes, they're a shitload less intrusive and abusive than a private employer knowing what you're doing most of the

    • Wait, wut?

      In the second sentence of your post which directly advocates socialism, you state:

      Then the state doesn't need to snoop.

      You do understand how socialism works, right?

      Given the power, the state will ALWAYS snoop. Socialism just gives the state all the more reasons and power to do so as we surrender personal responsibility in the name of comfort and safety to the foxes who would rule the hen house.

    • Sure they can incentivize you to do healthy things with sin taxes.

      Then some do-gooder writes a law that mandates you wear a tracking device (for your own good) and reduce or withhold medical services if you refuse. Remember in your scenario the state owns all health care services and they write and enforce the laws so you have no choice in the matter.

      At least if a private corporation is tracking you, they don't have the power of the police or taxing agencies to enforce compliance.

      • If this happened in a socialist society like France or Quebec, people would literally be rioting in the streets. And yes, sometimes mass strikes, riots, and shutdowns are needed to preserve freedom.
  • Fitbit collects the wearable data. The employer only sees it in aggregate form across its entire employee population. The employer does not collect the health information, nor have access to it in an identifiable way.

  • The programmes are opt-in, the data collection is also opt-in, and 91% of employers provide no incentives to opt in.

    • No FINANCIAL incentives, but what about HR-speak "weeeeeel, Jim, we might not see you as a team player..."
  • The average consumer duck doesn't have a damn clue about how much data they leak on a daily bases. Which is why it's absolutely vital to make sure everyone you know keeps their systems absolutely locked down. And even better, bin your smart phones all together and just use a dumb phone. Failing that, don't keep your phone logged into anything at all times. I can't speak of Apple products but your average Android phone will work just fine without being logged into any services. It takes a few extra step
  • As someone who works for one of these companies that has a "wellness" program, it's not so voluntary. Companies get an insurance break for having a certain percentage of employees participate. In our case, we need 25% employee wellness program participation which includes an online survey asking question about weight, activity levels, eating habits, hobbies - all of which they claim are non-personal. Given that the organization gets a cost reduction for participation levels, you can guess how hard particip
    • Online survey? Take a page from Paul Simon's "The Boxer" and lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie ... nothing immoral about lying to thieves.

  • Business idea... (Score:3)

    by b0s0z0ku ( 752509 ) on Tuesday October 09, 2018 @05:10PM (#57452872)
    Instead of a dog walker, be a watch-walker after working hours. Charge a buck per watch per day, put 100 watches on your arms and legs, and go for a nice, relaxing three-mile walk...

  • Why are employers involved in our healthcare, at all? They need something done and will pay us to do it for them. Why are they managing our health?

    It is like going to Starbucks for a coffee, and when you offer to pay, the barrista asks, "Thanks, but ... aren't you going to house-sit my miniature pinscher?"

  • A lot of employers are now using a program named Vitality, that is ostensibly to improve employee health and reduce their premiums yada yada yada, but we all know they're collecting data with the intent of fucking over people with more serious medical issues, i.e. the "expensive" illnesses.

    No one at my company is being fooled for one second about the end-goals of this program. I don't participate (I'm a contractor and blissfully exempt) but I woldn't even if I could. You have to wear a fitbit-type device AL

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