How to Navigate Health App Permissions
Nathan E Botts
/ Categories: Personal Health Information, Mobile Health & Health Apps, Privacy & Security

How to Navigate Health App Permissions

An assessment of the article from Wired magazine

SUBJECTIVE: This article published in Wired magazine discusses the long tail of privacy considerations that we need to think through when installing and giving permissions to apps on our smartphones, computers, and other internet connected devices. It brings to light the many different ways in which seemingly innocent functionalities that you turn on in apps can gather a lot of information that is often unknown to the user.

 

ABSTRACT FROM THE WIRED ARTICLE:

"Thanks to FaceBook, app permissions have popped back into the public’s consciousness again. Last month it was discovered that Facebook had stored the phone logs of Android users who opted sharing their contacts in the days before Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Then this week, during Mark Zuckerberg’s congressional testimony, two representatives asked whether Facebook might be listening to private conversations through our phone microphones and using the info to serve up eerily specific ads. Zuckerberg responded definitively to the questions about the microphone conspiracy theory—“no”—then felt the need to add that Facebook does have access to audio when people record video on their devices for Facebook. “I think that is pretty clear. But I just wanted to make sure I was exhaustive there,” he said."
"But Zuckerberg’s do-si-do with Congress, rather than being clear or exhaustive, showed that people are still genuinely confused about what data their smartphone apps can and can’t access. That’s partly because of app permissions: They’re oversimplified and designed to offer a minimal amount of information, right as they’re asking for access to your data. And while they’ve improved just as apps have, it’s not enough to match the sophistication of the data-gathering technology that now surrounds us."

 

OBJECTIVE:

This article does not provide any concrete guidance on methods for reducing the amount of access that third-party apps have to your smart devices, but it does provide a number of links to similar reports outlining how companies, services, and games such as Facebook, Pokemon Go, and travel apps such as Path. It also provides some discussion on how application platforms such as Android and iOS are now including further constraints on how developers request and maintain permissions for accessing device information.

 

ASSESSMENT:

Informative article worth reading to gain a better understanding of the reasons why we should take the time to more consciously keep track of the permissions we give applications that we use.

 

PLAN: 

Start with social networking apps that you use such as FaceBook, Twitter, Linked-In, SnapChat, and any others that you use on a frequent basis. Go into the privacy and sharing settings  and make sure that you agree with all of the permissions you are providing those applications.

Previous Article How do you control where your DNA data resides and how it is shared online?
Next Article Why are wearables not better targeted toward the people who might need them the most?
Print
22509 Rate this article:
5.0
0Upvote 0Downvote
Tags: Privacyhealth appsFaceBookPermissionsPokemon GoiOSAndroidWired Magazine

More links

  • A link to the original story at Wired.comFrom the article: Thanks to Facebook, app permissions have popped back into the public’s consciousness again. Last month it was discovered that Facebook had stored the phone logs of Android users who opted sharing their contacts in the days before Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Then this week, during Mark Zuckerberg’s congressional testimony, two representatives asked whether Facebook might be listening to private conversations through our phone microphones and using the info to serve up eerily specifi

Related articles

Please login or register to post comments.

All information, thought, and references provided on Health eConsultation is intended for informational and educational purposes only. Health eConsutlation currently makes no attempt at HIPAA privacy compliance. Any trade names used are information and details given for the convenience of users and do not constitute an endorsement from Health eConsultation.

Use this site at your own risk, and do not use the information to make medical or legal decisions without first seeking guidance from a medical or legal professional.

Plain and simple, ads are used to help pay for the cost of the server and resources required to serve Health eConsultation members and provide an objective resource of health information and health education. Subscribers of Health eConsultation can access the site without having to view ads.
OUR SERVICES

Health Education

We are passionate about the therapeutic benefits that can be derived from appropriately applied health education .

More informed patients are healthier and less costly to provide care to.

We seek to give consumers and patients a voice, because in the end we are them.

Evidence based practices is what nurtures a thriving health system.

HEALTH IT EDUCATION - KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

 
WHO WE ARE
Health eConsultation members believe that health improvement is about patient knowledge, motivation and opportunity to act in concert with healthcare professionals to improve their condition.
OUR PURPOSE
Our primary purpose is to build a community around unbiased Health IT education so that people are able to focus on the information they need without having to navigate the vast amount of information that is available on the web.
LEVERAGE VS BUILD
Health eConsultation seeks to leverage responsible, engaging and, hopefully, motivating education, and information resources. The idea is not to scrape the content of other sites, but to investigate, synthesize, and report in order to create an evidence-base founded on increased rigor and research.
RESOURCES & REFERENCES
Health eConsultation educational material and website information are provided primarily through free resources, although some sites mentioned might require further registration and payment for particular membership or services.
DISCLAIMER
All information, thought, and references provided on Health eConsultation is intended for informational and educational purposes only. Health eConsutlation currently makes no attempt at HIPAA privacy compliance. Use this site at your own risk, and do not use the information to make medical decisions without first seeking guidance from a medical professonal.
CUSTOMIZED LEARNING
By registering with Health eConsultation you can participate in comments, ratings, and bookmarking. You can also keep track of the time that you spend learning about certain topics for your own records or to share whith health professionals you are working with.