@Em0nM4stodon Imagine your doctor avoids an "overpriced Apple product" and uses a 2y old Huawei phone/watch that no longer gets updates, with apps and access to work email

Imagine there is an LG TV in the room. Given the current controversy around LG TVs allegedly listening or collecting data ; what could go wrong?

Or his laptop still runs Windows 7 because "it works fine", with years of random software installed.

My point: this isn't an Apple problem

@Em0nM4stodon
My spouse brought this up with his cardiologist, whose office relies on Google for everything & has Google "smart" shit everywhere.

The office barred my spouse from returning. Yes, they fired my spouse, their patient, because he brought up privacy concerns, because Google doesn't respect the laws of their own country, let alone ours, let alone anyone else's. This is going to be a massive problem.

@Em0nM4stodon Note that this is already happening.

If your doctor or hospital using Windows, between Windows Recall, Copilot or even AcrobatReader (sending files to their servers for OCR, summarizing, etc.) and a million other way to leak files, basically everything ends up on foreign servers.

The state of privacy in medical is almost non-existent and this is terrifying.

Meanwhile the EU is pushing ChatControl and Remote Attestation to destroy Privacy even more instead of protecting us.

@Em0nM4stodon @Npars01 Coming years? It is happening right now! The surest way I’ve found to get a doctor to pay attention to privacy concerns is to ask if the watch/recorder/whatever is on the other side is “HIPAA Compliant”. This is the law to protect the privacy of your health information. If they don’t know, ask for the contact info for their HIPAA Compliance Officer. Every company that touches private health information is required to have one. You might have to call the most senior person to find out. Why should they care? If they don’t give you this info and answer your questions, you can complain to US Health and Human Services (online form) and that can kick off an investigation that can get very serious. In addition to big $$ fines, a company (including universities) can lose ALL access to Federal contracts and grants FOREVER.

Is Apple HIPAA compliant? I have not yet asked.

@Em0nM4stodon
Let's put the Creep Watches with the Pedo Glasses in X Rockets and send them to the sun.

@Em0nM4stodon Nowhere near as bad as all of the cameras, ring cameras and cellphone servers that just tracked your exact route and speed on the way to the doctor’s office, the license plate scanners you drove by (or in the police car you went by), the grocery store that just tracked everything. They’re not Apple, so you have absolutely no assumption of privacy (vs some vague promise)
Every login for something that promises savings is a deal to sacrifice information in exchange.

@Em0nM4stodon I have PTSD and IBS - that's my only medical issues. And if you want to record that, then that's on you because ain't nobody gonna wanna hear about that "My dad beat me with pipe wrenches and shoved my head into a ceiling fan" And how does the that make you feel? "Poopy". If you wanna record that then you have WAY bigger issues than I'll ever have.

@Em0nM4stodon @davepolaschek I’d be more worried about the transcription hardware and software many docs/hospitals are now using that aren’t made by companies like Apple that have demonstrable ethics. Or the dumb shit that ends up in your health records that is incorrect and you usually have no ability to audit or correct it.

@Em0nM4stodon well some around here think these things are fantastic and making ads featuring husband and wives recording each other and being able to correct each other is a sure hit to sell these like hot cakes. Only difference between MAGA and the cult of the rotten fruit is one like Orange, other like Apple.

https://mastodon.social/@agiletortoise/117254408680929301

@Em0nM4stodon What could possibly go wrong?

Where is #SteveJobs when you need him?

#DigitalEthics

@Em0nM4stodon

not to mention what the billionaire fascists in charge will do with that data. make lists of ppl they want dead, which is most of us as we become liabilities in wage costs for example.

@Em0nM4stodon I think this is bigger and scary things are already happening. E.g. let's reframe the story lightly:

Imagine you're having a remote appointment with your doctor for a very personal health issue ...

The watch records the entire appointment, and after syncing via Apple servers, is transcribed using a small ML model on their iPhone making errors about your personal details. Your doctor acts on these errors and you face the consequences. There are no safeguards.

This could have been many years ago, using voice memos, syncing using iCloud. Or any other Apple device.

The unfortunate reality is that regulation desparately needs to keep up even without any of this new Apple stuff :(

E.g. in my country: most doctors now depend on *free* AI transcription sites that collect user data to sell as training data. They are meant to ask for consent. Some ask, and only fewer will listen when you say "no" since they have become dependent on this.

As far as I can tell, in a lot of the world, rights to privacy have fallen woefully behind the rights implicitly granted to corporations and individuals to spy on others 😞.

Also: terrible to learn that the "Siri Recap" thing can work on the Apple watch.............

@Em0nM4stodon Hi Em, thank you so much for this. Could I ask for your permission to use this post in data protection training delivered to colleagues (Ireland)?

@Em0nM4stodon When do you believe any of this is "stored on their servers”?