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Your brain—the next frontier of privacy violation

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By Willie Brown

With technology monitoring our every move, and personal information being shared with third parties, data breaches have, unfortunately become commonplace.  But now, Big Brother is attaching itself to our brains. 

Neurotechnology is currently being used primarily within the medical field, and is broken down into two categories—invasive (implants) and non-invasive (wearables).  Deep brain implants can be used to stimulate brain activity to treat such conditions as epilepsy while headbands can measure fatigue.  Apple watches cannot, by law, be marketed as a health device, despite its ability to calculate such bodily functions as blood pressure.  Other applications allow people with limited mobility to control robotic limbs.

Depending on where you are in your understanding and capacity to adapt to change, neural technology can be seen as both a blessing and a curse.  As a blessing it can literally save a life.  As a curse, it may be privacy’s worst nightmare.

The issue of privacy has some consumer groups ringing the alarms.  How exactly is neural data being used and who has access to it?  Is law enforcement automatically entitled to see what’s going on in your head, and can that information be used against you?  It’s not very clear at this point.  And that has some folks worried. 

The potential to have your health data shared with third parties could have devasting consequences—especially such as your ability to find employment, obtain affordable health insurance, or other considerations. 

Fortunately for Californians, laws are already in place to protect brain data.  Still, it’s good to keep your eyes peeled for new developments that could compromise the privacy of your brain data in the future.  As the field of neurotechnology continues to advance, it’s important to establish regulations and protections to ensure the ethical use of neural data.

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