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Mar 2023
17m 54s

Health apps: Are we sharing too much?

Bbc World Service
About this episode

The digital health market is growing rapidly - in 2021 the sector was valued at 195 billion US dollars.

Companies offer apps and devices to monitor our vital statistics, our activity, our nutrition, our hormones. And those apps collect a lot of data about us.

Presenter Marie Keyworth visits Web Summit, a large tech conference in Lisbon, to find out what is happening to this information.

And asks how consumers can get the most out of health apps whilst feeling comfortable about data privacy...

Plus Marie explores the aftermath of the Roe v Wade ruling which raised concerns that law enforcement officials could subpoena abortion-related data from data companies and women's health apps, to use in a prosecution.

Eirini Rapti, the founder of the menstrual cycle tracking app Inne tells Marie how her company responded to Roe v Wade, and the impact it might have on international growth.

Russell Glass, the CEO of Headspace Health which started as a mindfulness app, says they follow robust privacy and security rules, but a lot of the burden is falling on the consumer too because regulation can't always keep up.

Presenter and producer: Marie Keyworth

(Image: Woman using mobile phone. Credit: Getty Images)

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