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21% of Large Employers Collect Health Information From Employees' Mobile Apps or Wearable Devices, Report Says (axios.com)
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.
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.
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)
Europe and Canada have stronger privacy protections than the USA. Government snooping is more restricted (by applicable laws) than private employer snooping, which is governed by "if you don't like it, find another job, plebe" here in the good 'ol US of Ay.