privacy

Juno, CQC, privacy, data governance, Forward Clinical
By  Tammy Lovell 02:22 am October 11, 2021
UK-based digital health firm Forward Clinical Ltd has been rated ‘requires improvement’ by England’s health and care regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The company provides services through its Juno app, which allows parents to access advice on maternity and children’s health issues from NHS paediatricians and midwives. A CQC inspection, which took place over two days in July and...
Code displayed on screen
By  Dave Muoio 02:39 pm February 9, 2021
A recent report testing the security capabilities of several mobile health apps highlighted "systemic" shortcomings and vulnerabilities that could lead to the exposure of users' sensitive health and identity information. Conducted by cybersecurity marketing firm Knight Ink and sponsored by mobile app API security company Approov, the investigation reverse-engineered 30 mobile health apps using an...
Person outdoors looks at smartphone
Google’s $2 billion acquisition of Fitbit last month has been met with concern from privacy advocates worried about how the tech giant will use personal fitness data. This reaction prompted the tech giant to clarify that the acquisition is "about devices, not data." The deal has brought to light a larger issue that we all seem to gloss over: Every day, millions of people publicly share seemingly...
By  Dave Muoio 03:11 pm January 13, 2021
Period and fertility-tracking-app maker Flo Health has settled with the Federal Trade Commission regarding a complaint alleging improper disclosure of sensitive user data to third-party marketing and analytics services from Facebook, Google and others, the agency announced today. The FTC's complaint listed several ways in which Flo deceived its users. These included messaging from the company...
PouchPass, Consumer trends
By  Sara Mageit 08:29 am December 29, 2020
A multidimensional approach to health was already gaining considerable momentum prior to the outbreak of COVID-19. From physical fitness, to mental wellbeing, the health tech consumer landscape was evolving and innovating at a steady speed. However, what was previously modest growth in health tech adoption has since spiked rapidly due to the pandemic. According to a study by Deloitte, due to...
telehealth, Alan
By  Sophie Porter 09:09 am November 24, 2020
Leading French independent health insurer Alan has teamed up with data security company Tanker to bring end-to-end encryption to its telehealth chat platform. The service is the first telehealth chat platform available to the general public that is end-to-end encrypted. WHY IT MATTERS The Alan app links users with associated doctors through a messaging service or video-consultations, which enable...
By  Dave Muoio 03:09 pm October 12, 2020
As healthcare becomes more digitized and clinical treatments shift away from one-size-fits-all therapies, the industry will need to become more critical about how it's employing and curating health data. For vendors and providers, it's about understanding what tools are at their disposal and how they can be implemented to maintain and improve the standard of care. But for regulators like the FDA...
By  Dave Muoio 04:34 pm September 18, 2020
COVID-19 may not be the first pandemic the world has faced, but the virus' challenge comes amidst widespread skepticism of longstanding public health institutions. Government-led responses to outbreaks have varied from country to country, and incongruent messaging between political leaders, health agencies and other sources of information have fueled varying levels of concern and distrust among...
By  Dave Muoio 03:15 pm September 15, 2020
A new survey conducted among consumers and IT professionals by data security company SecureAge Technology suggests that the clear majority of these groups believe COVID-19 contact-tracing technologies put individuals' personally identifiable information at risk. Despite this, both groups generally believed that these types of tools could help cut down the impact of the disease, and would support...
By  Dave Muoio 03:23 pm August 20, 2020
Picking through the scraps. Following the bankruptcy of 'digital pill' maker Proteus Digital Health, business partner and stakeholder Otsuka Pharmaceutical has been approved to purchase the digital health company's assets by a federal bankruptcy court judge, STAT reports. Otsuka's bid was challenged by Novartis, two former Proteus executives and other investors, who argued that the agreed upon $...