Driftspace
Consumer wearable devices designed to track brain activity — marketed for uses s
Consumer wearable devices designed to track brain activity — marketed for uses such as improving sleep, focus or stress levels — are reportedly gathering tens of millions of hours of neural data and using it to train artificial intelligence systems, often without clearly informing users, according to reporting published this week. Privacy researchers and medical ethicists have raised concerns about what they describe as a distinctive category of data: unlike browsing history or location records, brain signals can in principle reflect thought patterns, emotional states and neurological health conditions. Companies involved say the data is anonymised and that users agree to its collection through terms-of-service documents. Critics respond that few people read those documents and that neural information poses risks that existing privacy frameworks were not designed to handle. Several jurisdictions are now examining whether current data-protection laws are adequate for the neural-data era. How much do you know about what your personal devices collect, and does it matter to you who has access to that information?