What you give up when you put on a smartwatch or ring

Modern smartwatches and smart rings do far more than count steps. They continuously collect fitness, sleep, fertility and other health data and upload it to apps, which raises questions about privacy, security and who actually owns that information. The more data collected, the greater the risk of breaches or of companies selling or sharing information for marketing, insurance profiling or other uses users may not realize.

HIPAA does not cover data from wearables, since those devices are not considered covered entities, and the US lacks a federal privacy law that specifically protects consumer health data. Over 20 states have passed comprehensive data privacy laws, but variations between them create a patchwork of protections.

More than 560 million people worldwide now own smartwatches, including over one in four Americans, so many users must look to terms of service and privacy policies to understand their rights.

United States

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