How (and why) should you manage Health data sharing?

Question: How can I control which apps and services have access to my Health app data?
Answer: Open the Health app, tap on your profile picture, then select Privacy. You can then manage which apps have access to your health data.

Why should you take manage Health data sharing?

Apple’s iPhone collects a huge quantity of health related information about you within the Health app, but that information must be protected.

Think about it this way, if stolen your health data can be abused.

Criminals may use it to create fake identities or may combine it with other personal data they have collected on you to commit financial crimes.
Employers may abuse access to such data when hiring or firing, while insurance firms may use data they shouldn’t have to set punitive premium charges.
Advertisers may target you with invasive pharmaceutical ads based on the knowledge they have about you, potentially exploiting vulnerable patients.
Governments may use this data to engage in warrantless surveillance.

The list goes on.

Some abuse has already happened

There are endless ways in which your private information can be used against your interests, and the concern is real. That fear is mitigated on Apple’s platforms (at least the ones it controls) because Apple protects them very well. That means very few cases in which information gathered by the Health app has been exfiltrated been reported – though some incidents have taken place, including:

Several period tracking apps were found to be harvesting and sharing sensitive health data with third party companies, including Facebook. They did so without obtaining user consent.
Apps have also been found to gather and in some cases share more data than was necessary for the function of the app.
In a very small number of cases employees at health-related companies that work with Apple have reportedly accessed health data without proper authorization.

Fortunately, such events are very rare. In part that is because of Apple’s rock-solid privacy and security protections. It is also because if it learns of a successful attack it will tighten protections against them. But security starts with the user, and this is why you should learn how to manage what data your Health app shares with third party apps.

How do I manage Health data sharing?

As explained earlier, finding out which apps are accessing your Health data is pretty easy – just open the Health app, tap your profile picture at the top right of the screen and then select Privacy.

Manage apps

Now tap Apps in the Privacy section. You will be presented with a list of all the apps that have requested access to your Health data. Select an app to find what data it can access; you can then switch those data types on or off. The kind of data collected on your device may include heart rate, sleep analysis, steps, and other personal health metrics.

Manage data

You can also tap Data Sources & Access to view and manage which devices and apps contribute data to your Health app. And if you have linked health records from healthcare providers you can tap Review Health Records Sharing to control those interactions too.

Manage more

You can use Health to control what data apps share and see about you, but you can also completely revoke an app’s access to your data in Settings>Privacy & Security>Health. Just select the app, toggle off all data types you don’t want it to get, or use Turn Off All Categories to disable it completely.

But if you find an app that you do not recognize, or don’t recall giving any data access permissions too, or that you no longer use, it is best to delete the app from your device completely.

Finally, make sure to use tough passcodes and never, ever download an app unless you trust the source, the store it is from, and the developer.

Please also

As well as installing Apple software updates when they appear, it is good security policy to review all your apps regularly, deleting those you no longer use or need and ensuring only the apps you trust have any access to your information.

Apple cares about privacy

There is no doubt that Apple cares about privacy. That is why Apple Intelligence strives to work on the device, or through Apple’s own trusted cloud systems before outsourcing requests to third party GenAI providers.

When it comes to apps, Apple also provides App Privacy Labels, end-to-end encryption, and practises data minimization, in which it encourages all developers to collect only as much information as they need to make their apps work.

Apple’s genuine commitment to privacy and security means cases in which Health data has been stolen are very rare, but anyone using these devices should take steps to protect themselves with regular privacy audits on their device.

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