The Halo’s companion app also asks users to strip down and take photos so it can estimate their body fat percentage. “There have been so many privacy violations in the past, and selling of data,” Klobuchar said. The Protecting Personal Health Data Act proposed that the HHS secretary should create regulations for new direct-to-consumer health regulations not covered by existing laws. Amazon’s privacy policy for the Halo says it does not send voice recordings to Amazon’s servers, like its Echo smart speakers do. In her letter to Azar, Klobuchar asked what authority HHS has to regulate the security and privacy of health devices — and what additional authority or resources it needed to do so.

Source: Washington Post December 12, 2020 00:17 UTC