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.
What could happen if something goes wrong?
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 to protect yourself
- 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.
Can it snoop on me?
Camera
Device: No
App: No
Microphone
Device: No
App: No
Tracks location
Device: No
App: Yes
What can be used to sign up?
Yes
Phone
No
Third-party account
No
Signup is not required to use the Kinsa thermometer. Signup with email address is required to use the Kinsa app's full features.
What data does the company collect?
Personal
Name, email, birthdate, gender, location
Body related
Temperature, symptoms, diagnosis
Social
How does the company use this data?
How can you control your data?
What is the company’s known track record of protecting users’ data?
No known incidents in the last 3 years.
Can this product be used offline?
User-friendly privacy information?
Links to privacy information
Does this product meet our Minimum Security Standards?
Encryption
Strong password
Security updates
Manages vulnerabilities
Privacy policy
Does the product use AI?
Is this AI untrustworthy?
What kind of decisions does the AI make about you or for you?
Is the company transparent about how the AI works?
Does the user have control over the AI features?
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