One of Apple’s big selling points for its first wearable is the ability to track a range of user health data for personal fitness applications, and Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen wants to know what Apple is doing with such sensitive information outside of the Apple Watch.
Jepsen wrote to CEO Tim Cook on Monday asking for the specific details of Apple Watch’s health sensors and ability to collect and store users’ personal health data. Chief among his concerns are how Apple plans to obtain user consent to track health information, if and how such information will be shared, and what privacy safeguards the company plans to implement to secure user data from Apple Watch applications and their developers. (RELATED: Five Things To Look Forward To From Apple’s Watch, iPhone 6 Launch Event)
The Associated Press reports Jepsen isn’t “seeking a confrontation with Apple,” and that the AG just wants an opportunity to express his privacy concerns with company higher-ups.
According to the report, Jepsen made similar requests of Google over Google Glass last year, after which the company implemented a review and approval process for third party applications.
During an interview aired Tuesday night on PBS, Cook told journalist Charlie Rose that Apple isn’t into the big data business, and speculated the legitimacy of business models employed by some of it’s Silicon Valley contemporaries, many of whom are well known for mining and profiting from user data.
“Our business is not based on having information about you. You’re not our product. Our product are these, and this watch, and Macs, and so forth,” Cook said.
“And so we run a very different company. I think everyone has to ask, how do companies make their money? Follow the money. And if they’re making money mainly by collecting gobs of personal data, I think you have a right to be worried. And you should really understand what’s happening to that data, and the companies — I think — should be very transparent.”