Work up a sweat with out exposing your private information – this is how you can safely use health apps

It’s right here finally – 2025 – and whereas January has felt as if it’s gone on for months, already, loads of us use the beginning of a brand new yr to launch a bodily health journey.

If you’re prioritizing your well being, it is sensible to spend money on some assist, and health apps have develop into useful go-tos. With one app, you possibly can monitor the whole span of your progress – train routines, weight reduction, coronary heart charges, sleep patterns, and way more. However, that is super-sensitive information, and a few health apps don’t deal with it with the care that they need to.

So, with that in thoughts, I’ll run by how you should utilize these health apps with out freely giving delicate info – and increase your on-line safety in time for Data Privacy Week.

The privateness dangers of utilizing health apps

Okay, you’ve received your exercise gear, purchased all the correct tools, and have carved out time in your week to go work up a sweat – a health app simply looks like a vital a part of the puzzle, proper?

They definitely can serve an essential goal. All of your statistics can be housed in a single place, in any case, making it rather a lot simpler to see the way you’ve been doing and the place you possibly can enhance your present routine. However, as I discussed earlier, this opens you (and your information) as much as sure dangers – particularly in the event you’re entrusting these particulars to Tech Giants who have already got a, uh, less-than-stellar popularity on the subject of defending shopper information.

The very first thing to recollect is that the info collected by these apps isn’t protected underneath the legislation like well being info normally is. If you conform to let your app monitor it, you’re additionally (probably) agreeing to make it obtainable to different third events.

Any health app that allows third-party entry to your medical and health info ought to be critically side-eyed, in fact. Surfshark lately compiled a report detailing how 12 of 15 of in the present day’s greatest health apps gladly fork over your private information to 3rd events (and that Strava and Fitbit lead the pack).

These third events sometimes accumulate the info and mix it with the info of different customers in, what you possibly can solely hope, is an anonymized cluster. As for why, effectively, the same old cause is for the sake of enhancing the app’s efficiency.

The anonymization course of isn’t all the time good – vulnerabilities and errors occur. Unfortunately, once they do, it’s a present to unhealthy actors seeking to pinpoint a particular particular person for their very own nefarious ends. Think harassment, phishing scams, and even stalking.

Then, there are the info brokers. Some health apps conform to fork over your stats to those brokers who, in flip, can promote that information on to the very best bidder. It’s good enterprise for them – and very true of free health apps. How else do you count on them to show a revenue?

Fitness apps aren’t distinctive in being data-hungry, in fact, as all apps accumulate a certain quantity of element about you. However, it’s a lot simpler to modify up passwords and usernames (to shore up your safety) than it’s to alter identifiable data like your resting coronary heart charge, weight, or blood kind. This info is intrinsically tied to you, and it’s the form of factor you don’t need to find yourself on the market on the darkish net.

How to reclaim your information privateness when utilizing health apps

If you’re questioning whether or not all of because of this it’s essential to surrender your favourite app and go completely analog – don’t fear, that’s not the case. There are a number of easy issues you are able to do to steadiness your well being journey with good digital privateness:

• Embrace digital minimalism: bear in mind the outdated adage of “stranger hazard”? It nonetheless rings true in 2025. Be cautious of what private particulars you share along with your app and ask if it actually, actually, wants it to do its job. I’d suggest utilizing a variation of your actual title, not revealing your location, and refraining from importing any images. Save these on your mates!
• Opt for the strongest safety settings: this one’s essential – and never simply on your health apps. Head into your app permissions to see what your tracker has entry to, and prune any that you simply discover superfluous. Then, within the app’s settings, be sure you choose the hardest, strongest privateness choices – hold your profile as personal as attainable and choose out of any third-party sharing.
• Don’t put your self on the map: okay, whereas this will appear counterintuitive (particularly in the event you’re an avid jogger), hear me out. Location information is a sizzling commodity that unhealthy actors can use to trigger all types of havoc – or by promoting corporations seeking to serve up tailor-made adverts. If you should share your location, solely accomplish that while you’re a good distance from your private home, and switch it off earlier than you head again.
• Go premium: free apps are all the time tempting, particularly in the event you’re working with a funds. However, free providers normally make you the product – and revenue out of your private information. Premium providers sometimes have the sources to make use of stronger safety measures and spend money on efficient customer support groups that may troubleshoot any issues. Essentially, it’s cash effectively spent.
• Pick a stable password: I discover myself giving this recommendation on a regular basis, but it surely’s essential! A weak password is likely to be straightforward to recollect, however you’re additionally making it rather a lot simpler for a hacker to breach your account with a brute power assault or credential stuffing marketing campaign. So, use distinctive passwords for your whole apps, ensure they embody some symbols and numbers, and take a look at one in all in the present day’s greatest password managers in the event you want a serving to hand remembering them.
• Don’t postpone these updates: we’ve all achieved it – we open up an app and see it has a pending replace, and determine that we’ll take care of that later. These updates serve an essential goal, nevertheless, and typically even comprise patches to resolve identified safety points. If you’re trusting your health app along with your bodily particulars, effectively, you’ll need to ensure they’re well-guarded.