Most Smart Watches, Rings, and Bands Lack Basic Transparency Reports and Key Privacy Features
A review of popular wearable devices — including Oura Ring, Apple Watch, Garmin, and Whoop — finds that most fall short on basic privacy and security standards, lacking transparency reports and strong encryption options despite collecting continuous personal health data from roughly 40 percent of Americans.
Why this matters: These devices sit on your body all day and collect some of the most personal data that exists: heart rate, sleep, menstrual cycles, stress levels, location. That data is worth a lot to insurers, advertisers, and data brokers. Yet most of these companies do not publish transparency reports, so you have no real way to know who they share your data with or how often they hand it to governments. Health data from a wearable is not like a shopping history. It can follow you into a job application, a custody case, or a health insurance decision. The devices got popular. The accountability did not keep up.
Who should care: Healthcare professionals · Privacy officers · Compliance · General readers · Policy
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