We’ve all been there. We’ve downloaded a new app or visited a website that requires us to enter personal data and immediately been presented with a long agreement that we have to agree to before using the service.
And every so often, we may have been asked to reaffirm our consent to these terms of service, which outline what the company does with our data, including sharing it with third-party users for research or with their own internal teams to improve the quality of their product.
These terms are especially important for health apps and websites — such as for fitness, mental health, period-tracking, or even genetic testing — as they gather highly sensitive personal information from consumers.
About the Author Reprints
To submit a correction request, please visit our Contact Us page.
STAT encourages you to share your voice. We welcome your commentary, criticism, and expertise on our subscriber-only platform, STAT+ Connect