Health and fitness apps are blowing up. But before you download one, you might want to do a little digging into its privacy and security policies.
According to a study released Tuesday by the San Diego, California-based Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, many of the most popular wellness apps carry privacy risks for users. The report, which evaluated 43 free and paid apps, found that many apps lack privacy policies, send information without encryption and transmit user data to third-parties (like advertisers, ad networks and analytics companies) without informing users.
“Data security and privacy – from a technical standpoint – is abysmal,” said Beth Givens, founder and director of the privacy-focused non-profit.
Privacy and security issues are hardly confined to health and fitness apps. But given the often sensitive nature of health data stored on wellness apps, which can range from weight loss trackers to blood glucose monitors, apps used for health purposes should be adhering to a much higher standard of privacy and security protection, Givens said.
For its report, the Clearinghouse focused on the top 20 paid apps in the health and fitness categories in Google Play and Apple’s App Store, as well as 23 of the most popular free wellness apps on both platforms. While the Clearinghouse chose not to name the apps in its report, some of those apps could have included Nike+ Running, Runkeeper, Lose It! and WebMD.
According to the report:
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Chuck Sherwood, Former Senior Associate, TeleDimensions, Inc