Your Fake Email Address Does Not Keep Your Health App Data Private
Apps that store sensitive health data are no longer uncommon. In addition to apps from my real-life healthcare providers (which must be HIPAA-compliant), I’ve used apps that track my weight, my fitness habits, my mental health, my periods, and more. In many cases, applications exchange or sell your data, and they are associated with you, even if you register with a bogus email address.
How is this possible? First, if you use the same fake email address everywhere, it will still identify you, even if you think it is fake. When companies exchange data, they often want to find out who is who and correlate the data they have. Even if you manage to use different disposable email addresses for each app, there are other identifiers they can use as well.
If you sign in with your Facebook or Google account, this identifies you. If you provide a phone number – and it wo n’t record a different entry every time – it also identifies you.
But even the constant influx of fake letters and phone numbers won’t keep your privacy. One recent study of depression and smoking cessation apps on Android and iOS found that some of the apps use device IDs that are tied to your actual phone. Another study of Android health apps found that 45% connect device IDs to your data, and many of them transmit that data without encryption.
There is no good solution to this problem yet. Fake emails might help a little, or at least not hurt. You can reset your phone’s advertising ID from time to time, but there are several types of IDs and not all of them can be reset. You can try changing your email address or phone number in your health app, but they might still keep the data you’ve already entered rather than deleting it. For now, the best solution may simply be to use health-related applications wisely and be aware of the risks.
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