Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

privacy

Consumer Reports finds unclear, questionable privacy practices and policies among popular mental health apps

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Men­tal Health Apps Aren’t All As Pri­vate As You May Think (Con­sumer Reports):

Type “men­tal health” or a con­di­tion such as anx­i­ety or depres­sion into an app store search bar, and you can end up scrolling through end­less screens of options. As a recent Con­sumer Reports inves­ti­ga­tion has found, these apps take wide­ly var­ied approach­es to help­ing peo­ple han­dle psy­cho­log­i­cal challenges—and they are just as var­ied in how they han­dle the pri­va­cy of their users. [Read more…] about Con­sumer Reports finds unclear, ques­tion­able pri­va­cy prac­tices and poli­cies among pop­u­lar men­tal health apps

Will better neurotech regulations be enough to address privacy, effectiveness and potential harm concerns?

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See above the fas­ci­nat­ing pre­sen­ta­tions by Dr. Anna Wexler, Dr. Karen Rom­melfanger and Jacque­line Stud­er on pri­va­cy and ethics dur­ing the 2019 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit.

We still lack clear stan­dards and tax­onomies for neu­rotech­nol­o­gy but sev­er­al ini­tia­tives are under­way to antic­i­pate and address the chal­lenges. One impor­tant take-away is that it is impor­tant to be aspi­ra­tional and prag­mat­ic rather than “legal­is­tic” — by con­sid­er­ing diverse pol­i­cy and indus­try per­spec­tives, striv­ing for the widest ben­e­fit with the min­i­mum risks, and bet­ter edu­cat­ing users, we can enable ben­e­fi­cial inno­va­tion in ways that reg­u­la­tion alone –as impor­tant as it is– can­not. [Read more…] about Will bet­ter neu­rotech reg­u­la­tions be enough to address pri­va­cy, effec­tive­ness and poten­tial harm concerns?

Debate: What are the ethics of discouraging much-needed innovation given potential privacy concerns?

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CNN’s Ana Maria Mon­tero inter­views Ned Sahin. The dis­cus­sion about the impact of EU pri­va­cy laws starts in minute 10.

Sto­ry descrip­tion (CNN Mon­ey): Ned Sahin is founder and CEO of neu­rotech­nol­o­gy start-up Brain Pow­er, whose tool “Empow­er Me” uses smart glass­es like Google Glass to coach those with autism. It helps school­child­ren learn social and cog­ni­tive skills and can even guide adults through an inter­view process. Brain Power’s prod­uct is sold to many schools in the U.S. but may nev­er make it to mar­ket in Switzer­land [Read more…] about Debate: What are the ethics of dis­cour­ag­ing much-need­ed inno­va­tion giv­en poten­tial pri­va­cy concerns?

China is harnessing brain-wave trackers and artificial-intelligence to raise better (and more compliant?) students

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A grow­ing num­ber of class­rooms in Chi­na are equipped with arti­fi­cial-intel­li­gence cam­eras and brain-wave track­ers. While many par­ents and teach­ers see them as tools to improve grades, they’ve become some children’s worst night­mare. Video: Crys­tal Tai for The Wall Street Journal.

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To address grow­ing pri­va­cy issues such as those high­light­ed in the video above [Read more…] about Chi­na is har­ness­ing brain-wave track­ers and arti­fi­cial-intel­li­gence to raise bet­ter (and more com­pli­ant?) students

May “industry review boards” contribute to the wider adoption of virtual and augmented reality for physical and mental health?

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Indus­try review boards are need­ed to pro­tect VR user pri­va­cy (World Eco­nom­ic Forum blog):

“It seemed like a game when Riley first start­ed the vir­tu­al real­i­ty (VR) maze … A month after play­ing the game, Riley was turned down for a new life-insur­ance pol­i­cy. Giv­en his excel­lent health, he couldn’t under­stand why. Sev­er­al appeals lat­er, the insur­ance com­pa­ny dis­closed that Riley’s track­ing data from the VR maze game revealed behav­ioral move­ment pat­terns often seen among peo­ple in the very ear­ly stages of demen­tia [Read more…] about May “indus­try review boards” con­tribute to the wider adop­tion of vir­tu­al and aug­ment­ed real­i­ty for phys­i­cal and men­tal health?

How to address privacy, ethical and regulatory issues: Examples in cognitive enhancement, depression and ADHD

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We hope you enjoy this slid­edeck sup­port­ing a great ses­sion at the 2019 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit: The Future of Brain Health (March 7–9th).  Full record­ings are avail­able for pur­chase here.

1–2.30pm. How to address pri­va­cy, eth­i­cal and reg­u­la­to­ry issues: Exam­ples in cog­ni­tive enhance­ment, depres­sion and ADHD 

  • Dr. Karen Rom­melfanger, Direc­tor of the Neu­roethics Pro­gram at Emory University
  • Dr. Anna Wexler, Assis­tant Pro­fes­sor at the Perel­man School of Med­i­cine at UPenn
  • Jacque­line Stud­er, Senior VP and Gen­er­al Coun­sel of Akili Inter­ac­tive Labs
  • Chaired by: Kei­th Epstein, Health­care Prac­tice Leader at Blue Heron