Thanks to the coronavirus, thermometers are a must have these days. Kinsa's smart thermometers take your temperature like a regular thermometer--there's one that does it in the ear and another the oral, under arm, anal way. What makes these thermometers interesting is that they connect to Kinsa's app via Bluetooth and give you personalized guidance based on your symptoms. They also take the health data they collect from the over two million thermometers in use and anonymously aggregate this date to see where illness outbreaks are happening down to a county or zip code level in the United States. You can even access this information at their site healthweather.us. This might worry some privacy experts, while making many public health experts working to battle illness outbreaks happy.
Wat kin der barre as der wat misgiet?
Kinsa seems to do a pretty good job with privacy and security. They say they won’t sell your personal information, which is good. They may de-identify and aggregate your personal information to create "Illness Signals" to help inform where and when illness is spreading. According to a 2018 NY Times article, they can use this de-identified data to target ads to an area based on illness outbreaks, or as they state in their privacy policy, “Help companies direct their marketing to sicker areas.” That sounds creepier than it probably actually is...we hope.
And de-identifying personal data is generally an OK practice and can help better public health, although many privacy researchers will point out it can be relatively easy to de-anonymize such data. If you’re looking for a smart thermometer that doesn’t share this sort of aggregated data, the Withings Thermo currently doesn't share health data to help determine public health outbreaks in an area.
What's the worst that could happen? You could record your symptoms in the app. Kinsa sees that you and seventeen others like you in your county have the same symptoms, alert public health officials to a potential outbreak of illness, and public health officials step in to stop further spread of the illness. That doesn't sound too bad in the age of coronavirus.
Tips om josels te beskermjen
- Be very careful what third party companies you consent to share you health data with. If you do decided to share your health data with another company, read their privacy policy to see how they protect, secure, and share or sell your data.
Kin it my bespionearje?
Kamera
Apparaat: Nee
App: Nee
Mikrofoan
Apparaat: Nee
App: Nee
Folget lokaasje
Apparaat: Nee
App: Ja
Wat is der nedich om jo oan te melden?
E-mailadres
Ja
Telefoannûmer
Nee
Account fan tredden
Nee
Signup is not required to use the Kinsa thermometer. Signup with email address is required to use the Kinsa app's full features.
Hokker gegevens sammelet it bedriuw?
Persoanlike
Name, email, birthdate, gender, location
Lichemrelatearre
Temperature, symptoms, diagnosis
Sosjale
Hoe brûkt it bedriuw dizze gegevens?
Hoe kinne jo jo gegevens beheare?
Hoe stiet it bedriuw bekend as it giet om it beskermjen fan brûkersgegevens?
No known incidents in the last 3 years.
Kin dit produkt offline brûkt wurde?
Brûkersfreonlike privacyynformaasje?
Keppelingen nei privacy-ynformaasje
Foldocht dit produkt oan ús minimale befeiligingsnoarmen?
Fersifering
Sterk wachtwurd
Befeiligingsfernijingen
Beheart kwetsberheden
Privacybelied
Brûkt it produkt AI?
Is dizze AI ûnbetrouber?
Hokker soarte fan besluten makket de AI oer jo of foar jo?
Is it bedriuw transparant oer hoe’t de AI wurket?
Hat de brûker kontrôle oer de AI-funksjes?
Djipper dûke
Opmerkingen
Hawwe jo in reaksje? Lit it ús hearre.