Every morning, many users strap on their blood pressure cuffs and check their readings on their phones. However, depending on the app and settings, these readings—along with glucose numbers, weight, and medication schedules—may be stored in the cloud or shared with service providers.

Federal Trade Commission (FTC) cases have revealed that some health apps have disclosed sensitive health information to advertising and analytics companies without users realizing it. Notably, BetterHelp agreed to pay $7.8 million after the FTC alleged it shared email addresses, IP addresses, and answers to personal health questions with Facebook, Snapchat, Pinterest, and Criteo for advertising purposes.

Additionally, data brokers market health-related profiles that scammers could exploit. For example, lists include 435,245 postal addresses associated with Alzheimer's disease, over 2.3 million linked to blindness or visual impairment, 133,142 associated with addiction, and 857,449 connected to bladder-control issues.

The FTC is pushing for plain-language warnings before technologies begin generating wellness data that HIPAA does not protect. Users are encouraged to review app settings to limit exposure.

Kurt Knutsson, an award-winning tech journalist contributing to Fox News and FOX Business, highlights these concerns and offers resources such as the "Sick of Spam?" CyberGuy Live class replay and spam-stopping checklist to help users protect their information.

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