Are your hearing aid and fitness tracker spying on you?

If you're a health-conscious parent tracking your family's wellness or a homebuyer concerned about electromagnetic exposures, a new privacy concern is emerging that goes beyond traditional EMF worries: your wearable health devices may be sharing intimate health data with foreign governments.

What's Happening with Health Wearables

Sen. Rick Scott, chair of the Senate Aging Committee, has asked the Federal Communications Commission to investigate whether China-made wearable health devices pose security risks to Americans. His concern centers on devices that have become common in many households: continuous glucose monitors, remote blood pressure monitors, smartwatches, fitness trackers, and even smart hearing aids.

The issue is significant because roughly 70% to 80% of all global smart wearables are manufactured in China. Even devices not fully manufactured there may contain modular transmitters or embedded processors from Chinese companies. Under Chinese data laws, companies based in the country must share user data with authorities upon request.

"While consumers, including seniors, believe that their health wearables may be completely secure, the unfortunate reality indicates that in all likelihood, the most intimate details of their health may be accessible by a foreign adversarial government," Scott wrote to FCC chair Brendan Carr.

Why This Matters for Your Family

For families already concerned about wireless technology and health, this adds another layer of consideration when choosing connected devices. The data these products collect can expose physical vulnerabilities and provide population-level health profiles that could potentially be used to train artificial intelligence models for military applications.

Scott emphasized that seniors and families rely on these devices for critical health monitoring—determining whether someone receives emergency medical care, whether medications are working, and whether aging family members can safely remain in their homes.

While this concern differs from traditional EMF exposure worries—which focus on radiofrequency radiation from devices—it highlights the broader question many health-conscious families are asking: what are we really bringing into our homes? Just as some homebuyers research EMF shielding options when purchasing property near cell towers, selecting health devices now requires considering both physical exposures and digital privacy.

Originally reported by Sun Sentinel