Bipartisan Bill Introduced in Congress to Protect Health App User Privacy

(KNSI) – The Minnesota Department of Health says that the state’s COVIDAware MN exposure notification system has passed one million opt-ins, but who has access to that information?

Minnesota Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar and Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski introduced legislation in Congress to protect user health data. The Protecting Personal Health Data Act would require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to create regulations for health apps and home DNA test kits.

In a press release, Klobuchar says the new technology is great and makes it easier for people to monitor their health, but she’s concerned that health tracking apps have given companies access to private data with little oversight.

Murkowski pointed out that as technology evolves, policies to protect users must also evolve, and that, “By enacting important modern protections for consumers’ personal health data, our bill puts the privacy of American consumers first.”

The move was born out of a report from The Washington Post showing a pregnancy tracking app was selling user data to employers and that apps for people battling depression or trying to quit smoking were selling personal details to third parties without user consent.

COVIDAware MN is the state’s voluntary, anonymous application that alerts the user if another user they’ve come into contact with has tested positive for COVID-19 and if they had contact during the virus’s infectious period. The app does not tell you who the user was that you’ve come into contact with.

For more on the COVIDAware app and user privacy, click here.