Carissa Véliz

11.10.2021

Apple has taken a public stand on privacy, curtailing data abuses by apps and declaring it doesn’t exploit its users’ information. But it has also created comprehensive new ways to track us.

Among tech giants, Apple stands out for its insistence on offering privacy features instead of joining its competitors in the exploitation of users’ personal data. Apple CEO Tim Cook recently clashed with Facebook on exactly those grounds – making a point, during a podcast interview, of defending privacy over the social network’s data-hungry ad-based model. When it comes to privacy, the maker of the iPhone is presenting itself as a good actor. But is that actually the case?

Apple recently rolled out a smorgasbord of new security features: Apple devices now block tracking pixels embedded in emails, tell users how many times an app has accessed sensitive data, utilise a relay to mask web traffic, and allow for the creation of unique email aliases. All of these are praiseworthy tools – long overdue – to protect our privacy.

What’s more, judging by its success as the world’s biggest company by market capitalisation, Apple is demonstrating that privacy can sell. About 94 per cent of American users opted out of data collection when Apple gave them the choice. Given its reach and clout, Apple has been able to do more for privacy in one software update than what most governments around the world have done in years (although it seems that some apps are still tracking non-consenting users). With a single decision, Apple can improve privacy standards globally. But, before we give it too much credit, we should take a critical look at the company’s general direction of travel.

Many of Apple’s latest features are about enhancing surveillance – even if Apple would never call them that. The new iPhone operating system, iOS 15, can digitise text in photos, enabling users to copy and paste text from an image, or call a phone number that appears in a picture. Scanning nearby buildings with an iPhone will make Maps recognise them and generate walking directions. Algorithms will identify objects in real-time video, and it will be possible to turn photos into 3D models for augmented reality. And users will now be able to carry their IDs in their phone. All of these features increase the amount of data collected.

Apple is also active in the lucrative business of healthcare. Using their iPhones and Apple Watches, people can track their steps, heart rate, and gait, among other things. A new sharing tab on the Health app even lets users share their health data with family and caregivers. Granted, all that data is supposed to be kept secure – but whenever sensitive information is collected and shared that easily, data disasters are just lurking around the corner.

Read more at: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/apple-surveillance-technology

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Background: The evolution of the Telemedicine and e-Health is strictly related to the evolution of the mobile-technology. If today it is possible to successfully use a wide range of mHealth applications, playing an important role in Telemedicine and e-Health, health care has surely a gratitude debt with the smartphone. However, it is increasingly becoming clear that excessive use of the smartphone has implications for health in terms of risks and it is therefore necessary to tackle the various gaps and/or the role that Telemedicine and e-Health itself has in this field.

Methods: Through an overview to literature, Web and App stores the study faced the implications for health from the excessive use of the smartphone and therefore the various gaps and/or the role that Telemedicine and e-Health itself has in this area both in the prevention and in the monitoring with particular regard to the three components: eHealth, mHealth and eLearning.

Results: The study found (I) as emerging risks: the text neck, the risk of addiction and the risk in the use of deceptive Apps in mHealth; (II) as Telemedicine and e-Health useful approach: the design of Apps for the text neck prevention and the relevant acceptance and effectiveness assessment; the design and application of electronic surveys for tele-assessment of the addiction risk; the design and application of information and training path on the deceptive Apps in mHealth.

Conclusions: The key role of Telemedicine and e-Health in the prevention and monitoring of the risks from smartphone abuse has been clearly identified and the young people has been identified as target population and the relevant need to design specific teaching packages in this field focused on them.

https://mhealth.amegroups.com/article/view/63693/html

The post Health in the palm of your hand—part 1: the risks from smartphone abuse and the role of telemedicine and e-Health appeared first on EMFSA.

• May 26, 2020, 4:43 a.m. ET

China’s Virus Apps May Outlast the Outbreak, Stirring Privacy Fears

With the disease there mostly under control, officials are looking for new uses for the government software that’s now on many phones.

At the height of China’s coronavirus outbreak, officials made quick use of the fancy tracking devices in everybody’s pockets — their smartphones — to identify and isolate people who might be spreading the illness.

Months later, China’s official statistics suggest that the worst of the epidemic has passed there, but the government’s monitoring apps are hardly fading into obsolescence. Instead, they are tiptoeing toward becoming a permanent fixture of everyday life, one with potential to be used in troubling and invasive ways.

Read more at: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/26/technology/china-coronavirus-surveillance.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

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