Connecticut Attorney General Jepsen has ‘concerns’ about Apple Watch privacy

“Attorney General George Jepsen has concerns about how the new Apple Watch will protect consumer privacy,” Bill Cummings reports for Hearst Media Services. “Jepsen on Monday sent a letter to Apple posing a serious of questions about the new product, noting news report indicate it can store, collect and use consumers’ health information.”

“‘I am encouraged by Apple’s representations that personal health information will be encrypted on the Apple Watch and that users will decide which applications gain access to their health data. However, as personal information will no doubt be collected and stored in some way, questions remain, and I look forward to the opportunity to have a discussion with Apple,’ he said,” Cummings reports. “In a letter sent to Apple’s chief executive officer, Tim Cook, Jepsen asked for a meeting with company representatives to address his questions about how personal consumer information collected through Apple Watch will be stored and safeguarded.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: As 2014 is an election year for Connecticut Attorney General, George Jepsen is in the midst of a re-election campaign.

Would that Connecticut (and all) voters take note of such transparent, self-serving manipulators and send them off to fend for themselves in the real world for a change.

26 Comments

  1. I’m hoping Apple’s reply is short and simple, something along the lines of – “We’ll get back to you after the election, IF you’re still Connecticut’s Attorney General … “

  2. If nobody stored health information, patients would have to rely on their memories to fill out a twenty page health information and history form every time they saw a doctor or nurse. We could keep it all on paper, but that can be stolen or illegally copied, too. I doubt that the Apple Watch or FitBit can be equipped with a printer.

  3. Why does he need a face to face meeting with an Apple representative ?

    Any worthwhile security questions would be better dealt with in writing, but of course that doesn’t sit so well with being a self-publicising opportunist who thinks he has spotted an approaching bandwagon.

    If he bothered looking at what Apple has already done with regards to security issues on the touch sensor and Apple Pay, then he might have been able to deduce that Apple does take security seriously in a way that goes far beyond what other manufacturers do.

  4. Like everything else Apple is doing with their newest smartphones, all the data will likely be encrypted using the Secure Enclave on the AX processors. These people are sure publicity seekers always going after Apple.

  5. How come only general public will concern about Google Glass privacy issue and not the US government and senators? Or have I missed those cases back here from Hong Kong.

    And how come the US government and those school boards as well as the Dept of Justice always target Apple but not Google?

    Is it because that Google has done way lots more of lobbying work? Thus the bias?

  6. I have concerns about things I don’t understand. The Watch might be a super scanner of my brain and sell my thoughts to nefarious governments and terrorists! It might be alien technology and find a hole into my thoughts through my bloodstream and get under my tinfoil hat. Perhaps it will share how often I shake my hand up and down with people in the elevator.

  7. As a politician, I know that Apple can’t be altruistic and good because everybody I know is twisted and dishonest( and I hang out with politicians and lobbyists). We have to bring Apple down because I know in my cold worm eaten heart that Apple can’t be making such great products without making a deal with the devil. I did.

  8. Give the guy a break, he is only trying to get to the bottom of an important issue. Android health apps are frequently sending data to over 72 outside parties with no regulation over how it is used. Imagine if your employer or your heath insurer found out that you were fighting some condition or disease, through interpretation or misinterpretation of your data. this could be very costly. These questions should be asked and clarified. I, for one believe Tim Cook when he says that Apple is not in the business of collecting and selling your data like Google, but an assurance would be proper in light of what is at stake. As a Connecticut resident, I have the highest respect for Georg Jepsen who has a track record of fairness, transparency and intelligence, and I don’t feel this is just grandstanding.

  9. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. Any politician should be forced to look at the security holes in the ACA before looking at a private sector device which consumers actually have a choice to purchase or not to purchase.

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