Wearable Technologies: Ethical Issues, Dangers, and Legal Implications

This report delves into the multifaceted world of wearable technologies, examining their functionality, ethical implications, and potential dangers. It begins by explaining the working procedure of wearable fitness trackers, emphasizing their role in collecting and processing user data. The report then explores the ethical issues arising from the access to personal health information, particularly privacy concerns. It also addresses the legal issues related to data collection and potential misuse, such as identity theft and discrimination. Furthermore, the report discusses the potential health risks associated with wearable devices, including radiation exposure and interference with bodily functions. The author also provides an annotated bibliography of relevant research papers, offering a comprehensive overview of the current state of wearable technology and its societal impact.

Running head: WEARABLE TECHNOLOGIES
WEARABLE TECHNOLOGIES
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Introduction
A crucial role is played by Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in society.
Human behaviour’s every section is being changed by digitalization, from basic needs to social
needs. The new technology’s impact for improving well-being and health of individuals is
unprecedented. An opportunity is offered by digital revolution for transforming healthcare and
empowering citizens for taking their own health’s charge. For higher population, new
technology’s adaptation has changed from slower to higher adaptation. Nowadays devices and
applications related to health are used by several individuals.
Working Procedure of wearable fitness tracker
A wearable tracker senses continuously the body’s movement on accelerometer of 3 axis.
Data is stored when the tracker is worn, which allows to trace the movement of the user. The
data stored in tracker is used for processing. Processing takes place when data is shifted to
software linked with fitness tracker on laptop or smartphones where syncing takes place. As the
personal details of individual is shared with software, the collected data is run through
customized algorithm. This allows the software in detecting the implication of different
movements. It differentiates movements into several activities and provides more information
related to the movement detected. These are stored in different headings in the app.
Ethical Issues based on health trackers
Apps are accessed linked with trackers allows users in accessing information about
weight, sleep, daily activity and food intake. It should be considered that the physician can also
gain access to cell phone of the patient which contain confidential information. Issues about
privacy arises.

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Legal issues arising due to the wearable technologies:
Wearable technologies can give rise to several legal issue and privacy safety is the major
legal issue in this field. The wearable technologies collects information which consists of private
data from the user. This raises a wide range of legal questionnaire regarding the privacy issues.
The issues like identity theft, discrimination and stalking may occur. According to a conference
held in 2014, the huge collection of data from the wearable technologies that are stored in the
form of big data must be treated as private data and are not supposed to be given out without
prior permission from the data. As long as the permission of collecting data is provided from the
device, the wearable devices are subjected under legal issues.
Dangers to the human due to wearable technologies:
With the advancement of technology, there are a lots of benefits that can be achieved
from them along with some constraints. Wearable devices makes use of radiation technology for
detection of diseases or symptoms in the body. These radiations are indeed harmful for the body
as they can affect the immune system, reducers sperm count of the body, reduces appetite, causes
nausea, sleep disruption and may more issues. The radiation released by the smart devices affect
the natural pace maker of the heart which may lead to heart diseases.
Yes, as some point they are trustworthy. The smart watches can track the amount of sleep
or track the number of steps covered in the day or the heart rate of the person. These information
provided are genuine.
A person may or may not be willing to exchange or discuss his medical conditions with
an outsider. But he may be unaware of the fact that the data are already been stored in the cloud
or the database and are accessible by outsiders.

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Conclusion:
For individuals skilled digitally, the communication technology and information
utilization is full of chances, from navigating own data to consulting experts. As patients
and clinicians are discovering new ways for incorporating the technology, the ethics for
these devices needs to evolve along with this technology.

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Annotated bibliography:
Awolusi, I., Marks, E. & Hallowell, M., (2018). Wearable technology for personalized
construction safety monitoring and trending: Review of applicable devices.
Automation in
construction,
85, pp.96-106.
This paper has focused on the risks faced by employees in the construction industry. This
paper reviews about several applications of wearable technology for personalized health safety in
construction industry. This paper highlights the positive effect of wearable technology in the
construction. However, on the other side, this paper discusses about negative effects of wearable
technology. Some of the wearable devices have reported to provide inaccurate data on various
occasion. This can be create a serious issues especially in case of heart rates. A false reading
related to heart rate might cause death of an employee in the site.
Shih, P.C., Han, K., Poole, E.S., Rosson, M.B. & Carroll, J.M., (2015). Use and adoption
challenges of wearable activity trackers. IConference 2015 Proceedings.
This paper has discussed about application of wearable technology in health sector.
Wearable activities have become popular all over worldwide. This paper has reflected about the
challenges faced in the wearable device technology in the health sector. There are several cases
discussed in the paper that reflects wrong calculation of wearable technology in the health sector.
Various wearable devices used to send notification over the phone regarding health. It was found
that this messages have been providing wrong information remarked to health. Therefore, this
has been a big challenge with the wearable devices.
Halson, S. L., Peake, J. M., & Sullivan, J. P. (2016). Wearable technology for athletes:
information overload and pseudoscience?.
International journal of sports physiology and
performance,
11(6), 705-706.

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This paper has related about the utilization of wearable devices for athletes. Athletes used
to track their working hours during practice and training. Therefore, it becomes necessary to
track their health immediately. Therefore, wearable devices plays an important role in tracking
their heath. However, in many cases, wrong reading of wearable devices causes huge loss to the
athletes. Few of these devices have been compared with the gold standard of polysomnography,
and the manufacturers often do not share the algorithms used to detect sleep and wake. Sleep
monitoring devices are beneficial for both scientists and supporting staffs. These are useful in
creating monitoring devices which are popular in the field of sport. This have been validated in
many other fields too.
Saleem, K., Shahzad, B., Orgun, M. A., Al-Muhtadi, J., Rodrigues, J. J., & Zakariah, M.
(2017). Design and deployment challenges in immersive and wearable
technologies.
Behaviour & Information Technology,
36(7), 687-698.
This paper has focused on popular growth in ICT and wearable devices in the heath
sector. The paper addresses about the opportunities and the threats in developing wearable
technologies. There are both software and hardware challenges in the wearable technologies. The
use of this technology has helped in maintaining a keen approach in the development of the
health of athletes. There have been wrong readings of the wearable deuces which has been
causing a wrong impression on the health of athletes.
Hänsel, K., Wilde, N., Haddadi, H., & Alomainy, A. (2015, December). Challenges with
current wearable technology in monitoring health data and providing positive behavioural
support. In
Proceedings of the 5th EAI International Conference on Wireless Mobile
Communication and Healthcare (pp. 158-161). ICST (Institute for Computer Sciences,
Social-Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering).

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This paper has discussed about current trend of wearable devices in health sector and its
benefit. However, there are several issues in the wearable technology including wrong
calculation of health data. Data and information related to the health can be calculated to with the
help of wearable technologies. This can be wrong in many cases that create a bad impact on
human being.

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Bibliography:
Awolusi, I., Marks, E. & Hallowell, M., (2018). Wearable technology for personalized
construction safety monitoring and trending: Review of applicable devices. Automation
in construction, 85, pp.96-106.
Shih, P.C., Han, K., Poole, E.S., Rosson, M.B. & Carroll, J.M., (2015). Use and adoption
challenges of wearable activity trackers. IConference 2015 Proceedings.
Halson, S. L., Peake, J. M., & Sullivan, J. P. (2016). Wearable technology for athletes:
information overload and pseudoscience?. International journal of sports physiology and
performance, 11(6), 705-706.
Saleem, K., Shahzad, B., Orgun, M. A., Al-Muhtadi, J., Rodrigues, J. J., & Zakariah, M. (2017).
Design and deployment challenges in immersive and wearable technologies. Behaviour
& Information Technology, 36(7), 687-698.
Hänsel, K., Wilde, N., Haddadi, H., & Alomainy, A. (2015, December). Challenges with current
wearable technology in monitoring health data and providing positive behavioural
support. In Proceedings of the 5th EAI International Conference on Wireless Mobile
Communication and Healthcare (pp. 158-161). ICST (Institute for Computer Sciences,
Social-Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering).