Follow the money. Nominee for surgeon general has a stake in wearable tech.
Just like when those scatter machines were forced on the TSA, it’s because the person in charge had a stake in the company making them.
My company gave these things away to each employee for some ‘fitness challenge’ between departments…I never even opened the package. My group was mad at me for not helping win the free lunch or whatever it was … Until I made them read the privacy policy. Many stopped wearing them immediately
No fucking way.
You can’t pay me to wear anything on my wrist even without the government spying. And no way in hell would I trust anything this administration recommends.
Mandating Americans use ‘wearables’ for health reasons thats coming from the same party that, when asked to wear a mask during a worldwide pandemic for the public health decried government overreach, claiming it was like living in nazi germany, and even discredited Fauci over his very true claims of wearing masks helping to save lives. I truly cant wait to see what that side has to say about Junior here, gotta keep that same energy right??
yeh… like that worm in your head huh
Yeah, no
Revelation 13:16-17 New International Version 16 It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 17 so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.
Huh. No uproar from the people who believe in this shit? Weird.
Maybe they’re all too busy basking in the warm glow of hell… Nah
Years ago I purchased a Fossil Explorist Q wearable smartwatch. The first software update, about a month after I bought it, turned the device from a functional smartwatch into a brick that was so slow it was nearly nonfunctional.
The device was not powerful enough to run all the spyware they tried to pack into that update, turning it into an on wrist heater, occasionally getting Hot enough to burn me.
I’ve never seen a device so thoroughly destroyed by enshittification so quickly. That’s experience turned me off of wearables forever. Maybe I’ll make my own someday. Maybe I’ll get a Pebble now that they’re back-ish. I’ll never get anything with wearOS on it again. Hell after the last year I might never get something with Android/iOS again either.
Wait till you can have your pacemaker play the Netflix sound for 10% off the family plan
Ok RFK. Let’s see you and all of Trump’s squad do it first, and make sure it’s public in realtime. I’d love to see timestamps each and every time he reads AOC tweets.
Thing is putting the horrific privacy concerns aside it’s not like it’s a bad idea from a health perspective. Everybody being simply more aware of the things their body is doing is immensely helpful on a societal scale.
Problem is there aren’t any devices that are local only or otherwise truly private. Apple stores your data locally on your phone which is good, but there’s no guarantee it’ll always be that way.
Pass a law that protects wearable health data under HIPAA and I’d consider it.
HIPAA data is protected…until it isn’t. Laws change. Especially when companies are salavating to access health data.
Gadgetbridge?
Pass a law that protects wearable health data under HIPAA and I’d consider it.
And then the next bunch of fascists come in and seize all that data. Or the TLAs do it covertly.
We need strong data protection laws, but we also need strong technical measures to prevent intrusion.
This is my exact thought. My state recently passed a law requiring drivers’ phones to be in hands free mode which means connecting phone to vehicle. Data sharing and security on vehicles is so under regulated. Seems like another way to forcibly track us and sell our info.
I thought there were devices like this you could buy as a kit and build yourself that were local and private.
Yeh bangle.JS is this I think
Every time I see this Nazi Aristocrat, I am reminded that I have to sharpen my guillotine.
My watch runs for years from a coin cell. There’s no way that I’m replacing it with an internet connected spy device that constantly needs to be charged.
Mines an automatic. No electricity required.
Mine runs on me. It especially likes me wanking.
Good ol’ wank-o-clock.
The thought of a low battery alert saying “fancy a wank. M8?” got a laugh out of me
If it ever comes to this, I’m going to “forget” to charge mine. Every day since it comes out of the box. I might wear it so that I don’t get stopped in public but this is going to be a brick.
I’m sure soon enough we’ll be “wearing” them inside our bodies so we don’t have to be troubled to make sure they’re working. Hasn’t that been the Big Tech dream for decades now?
I’ve got 20 watches and only ever change the Swatch batteries. They’re laughably inefficient. One is an old smart watch, but it needs charged daily and I’m not up to all that.
Tell that to the Apple Watch wearers.
RFK jr’s wants, needs, desire to continue breathing move me not at all.
He can fuck off.
If we had a science-backing and non-Nazi government who I had any belief in their ability and will to keep our data safe, this might be really cool. When I first got an Apple Watch and saw all the ways it benefits me I honestly wished everyone had one by default.
Instead, something like this would simply be used to further control people especially women since it can track monthly cycles (to my knowledge at least.)
You know what else would help? Annual (or more) blood tests during routine wellness checks with your doctor.
Do you know why most people don’t get those?
Insurance won’t cover them.
Maybe start there? Although I’m guessing he has no buddies who would make money from routine blood tests.
The best part is the random bill.
- Go to the doctor. Get blood drawn.
- Doctor send the blood to a lab for the test. Doesn’t tell me who. I don’t care who. It’s their subcontractor, let them worry about it. *Go back to the doctor or get a call for results. Pay the doctor the standard co-pay. *Months later a random company sends me a bill. This is a company that I have never interacted with or entered into any contract with, for work that somebody else (presumably my doctor, but who the fuck knows for sure) asked them to do for them, sending the results to that other person and NOT to me.
The system is broken. If any other company subcontracted a part of their work to a third party, you as the client would reasonably expect that work to be paid through the original contract, not get a bill directly from the subcontractor. I didn’t hire them, the doctor hired them. As far as I’m concerned, that’s the doctor’s subcontractor and their debt, not mine. I paid the doctor already.
Or another variant.
- Go to the emergency room.
- Get separate bills FOR THE SAME SERVICE from the hospital, the doctor, and somehow the hospital again but this time it’s the emergency room (which is somehow separate with a different billing company).
The system is not just broken. It is designed to fleece us and train us to always accept whatever debt the institutions decide to levy on us without question.
That would be a violation of the hiipa act. Your samples get sent anonymous to the Lab with only a case number. They only know the adress of the doctor.
If your doctor didn’t anonymise your sample and the lab used it to send you a bill, they’re in deep waters.
Not when the lab and the hospital are owned by the same company. Promedica (local hospital) sent my sample to Promedica (lab) and I got a bill from the lab. Because Promedica (lab) didn’t have my insurance information.
Somehow I think the national lab test company’s lawyers have got them covered. This wasn’t exactly a fly by night, no name company. Having in known third party send you a medical bill months later is pretty fucking common place. This was just one anecdote of many, not an isolated incident.
Or how about the variant:
- submit prescription refill request
- check back
- check back
- check back
- escalate
- “we don’t have your insurance info”
- yes you do but here it is again
- resubmit prescription refill request
- check back
- check back
- check back
- escalate
- “we don’t accept that insurance. Find a new doctor”
New doctor
- “why don’t you take your prescriptions regularly?”
As medical bills can’t currently ding your credit score, I just throw them in the trash.
Only up to $500 though? And if you keep ignoring them, what will you do when you run out of providers? I can’t go to the one hand expert in the area because I owe him money. Same for the CVS doc.
They send it to the same collection agency. They have never denied us care yet.
Thanks for answering! Maybe I just need to go back?
You know what else would help? Annual (or more) blood tests during routine wellness checks with your doctor.
Do you know why most people don’t get those?
Insurance won’t cover them.
My insurance covers this.
I tweaked. Many (most?) don’t.
Interesting. I’ve never had an issue with it over multiple insurances. Maybe it’s just the plans my employers went with ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
to do what with? unless you’re going to also increase grants to nih studies for wearable devices to study and improve something involving the health system, what is the benefit besides making apple richer?
It makes the police state more efficient.
eat shit and go to hell.
He does probably eat shit so he’s at least half way there