Latest news with #OuraRings
Yahoo
17 hours ago
- Health
- Yahoo
RFK Jr. Wants Every American To Wear A Health-Tracking Device, And Security Experts Have Serious Concerns
If you don't yet wear a smartwatch or smart ring to monitor your health and fitness, you may soon be encouraged to do so by some of the highest-ranking members of the government. During a House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee hearing, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he'd like all Americans to use wearable health products, such as Fitbits, Apple Watches, Oura Rings, WHOOP and glucose monitors, to 'control' their health and 'take responsibility' for it. According to Poltico, Kennedy said people can use wearables to track 'what food is doing to their glucose levels, their heart rates and a number of other metrics as they eat it, and they can begin to make good judgments about their diet, about their physical activity, about the way that they live their lives.' While this remains just a suggestion and not a mandate, it's been announced that the Department of Health and Human Services will launch a campaign to encourage Americans to wear these devices. Wearables can track your heart rate, menstrual cycle, fitness regimen, blood sugar levels, sleep patterns, location and more. They're a great way to understand your health (for example, the Oura Ring lets you know when it thinks you're getting sick) and to stick to a workout regimen (the Apple Watch is both loved and hated for its 'close your rings' reminders). While they can be helpful for the average person, these devices store lots and lots of our data — is it safe for all of this information to be out there? And what happens if this data ends up in the wrong hands — including the government's? Experts weigh in. First, know that no one has said the government will actually collect this health data. Related: It Turns Out That Most People Wipe Their Butts Completely Wrong, But This Doctor Is Here To Teach Us The Right Way There is a major difference between the government having access to health data and the government simply encouraging folks to use wearables for their own health tracking, said Alex Hamerstone, the advisory solutions director for TrustedSec, an ethical hacking company. 'Those are obviously two very different questions, and there's no indication at this point that they're looking to have the government have access to that data,' he noted. The government does, though, already have access to lots of health data. 'If you look at the percent of people who receive health care through Medicare and Medicaid and state programs, and so on and so forth, they already have a lot of very detailed information,' Hamerstone noted. 'I know there are guardrails around it and things like that, but not to get into any kind of political thing, but a lot of those guardrails seem to be falling down,' he noted. You should also understand that no matter who is privy to it, health data is very valuable. You've probably heard the phrase 'data is the new currency,' meaning your personal data has inherent value to companies. It's how they sell you ads and understand your needs. But 'health data is just kind of a different category of data,' said Hamerstone. Having your credit card hacked is temporarily annoying, but you're not liable, and typically, after some phone calls and logistics, your life will go back to normal. 'But if someone gets access to your private health care data, that's much different. It's a different kind of data,' Hamerstone said. 'So, somebody knowing how many steps you take is one thing, but if you start to get into things like glucose levels or very detailed medical information, those things could start to affect other parts of your life,' he added. This could impact insurance rates and insurance options, Hamerstone said. Some experts are worried about the government's ability to protect health data because of past breaches. Related: Older Women Are Revealing Their Biggest "Life Regrets," And Every Young Person Needs To Hear This Kevin Johnson, the CEO of Secure Ideas, a security testing and consulting company, has concerns about the government's ability to protect any data that is gathered through the use of wearables. For instance, in 2018, there was a major security breach involving the Strava fitness app and the U.S. government in which soldiers' locations at military bases were shared via Strava. 'So, the idea that the government is saying we're going to encourage ... wearing of these when the government had a significant security problem due to this, that's one of the concerns that I just don't understand how we forgot that happened,' said Johnson. Overall, Johnson said, there are 'significant security issues with wearable devices.' 'My company and other companies have tested these devices. We've found vulnerabilities. We have found ways that the wearable technology gives an attacker access to your data because of security lapses in the hardware and software. We've seen multiple cases where attackers are able to gain access to things that are unrelated to the health care data because of security problems,' Johnson said. There have also been privacy violations when data brokers get access to this data, whether they gain access illegitimately or legitimately, Johnson said. (And the companies collecting the data from wearables do often sell your data to data brokers, Johnson noted.) You may not care if someone has your heart rate data from your smartwatch, but it's so much more than 'just' that. 'There are always security concerns when it comes to connected technology,' said Dave Chronister, the CEO of Parameter Security. And your wearable device is most likely connected to your smartphone — meaning it has access to lots of your personal data, according to Johnson. 'No device or platform is completely secure,' Chronister noted. 'Attackers often target the backend systems, such as cloud servers, via compromised employee credentials or software vulnerabilities.' 'Devices that rely on Bluetooth or Wi-Fi can also be exploited, and if the device supports messaging or sync features, phishing or spoofing attacks are possible,' noted Chronister. These devices can also get stolen or lost, which also puts your data at risk, Chronister added. Johnson said he's often heard people say things like, 'Oh, it's just my heart rate data, that's not a big deal,' but it's actually so much more than that. 'The issue is, we're not just talking about heartbeat. We're not just talking about your sleep schedule. We're talking about your location. We're talking about most of these apps tie into your contacts so that you can invite friends,' said Johnson. More, it also may include your reproductive health data, glucose levels or heart irregularities, Chronister said. 'These can paint a sensitive, personal portrait of someone's health and behavior,' Chronister added. Health data from wearables isn't protected like your medical records. 'It's important to understand that data from wearables is not protected under HIPAA like your medical records are,' said Chronister. HIPAA protects patient health records from things like doctor's appointments. 'Instead, it is governed by the company's terms of service ... which often include loopholes that allow for data sharing or sale, especially in the event of a merger or acquisition,' Chronister explained. This is true even if the company says they'll never sell your data. 'That promise can be overridden by fine print or future policy changes,' he added. 'Consumers should be aware that once their data is out there, they may lose control over how it is used,' Chronister said. What can you do to protect your security if you use wearables? 'Almost all of these types of devices have some level of privacy controls in them that you're able to select what data you give,' said Johnson. If you decide to get a wearable, make sure you check your privacy settings and adjust them accordingly, he noted. 'And this is very important — regularly go in and validate that the privacy settings are still set the way you want them to be,' Johnson added. This is really the most you can do to protect your data, and it certainly won't totally protect you from data breaches or data brokers. 'Unfortunately, individual users have very limited control. You are largely at the mercy of the device manufacturer and app provider,' Chronister noted. While you can follow privacy precautions, such as by 'turning off unnecessary Bluetooth connections, using strong account passwords, and checking app permissions ... those measures only go so far,' Chronister said. 'The real issue is how companies store, share and protect your data behind the scenes,' Chronister noted. Chronister stressed that 'it's critical to understand the long-term implications of voluntarily handing over personal health data to private companies. This information can be sold to marketers, shared with third parties, or exposed in a breach.' He voiced specific concern about how this data can be combined via different apps and companies over time to build 'incredibly detailed personal health profiles.' So while it may not be a big deal if one company has your sleep data and another has your activity levels, these companies can be acquired, or data can be combined to create a fuller picture of your private health information. 'And AI is really a wild card. Going forward, it will increasingly be able to draw conclusions and make predictions about your current and future health. This raises serious questions about how such insights could affect things like insurance eligibility, premium rates, or even creditworthiness,' Chronister said. When it comes to health data (and data of any sort), 'the risks are inherent even with the government not involved,' Hamerstone said. Once that data exists, it's at risk of being lost or stolen by bad actors, he added. Keep that in mind before you start using wearable health technology, and if you're already a user, it's important to be aware of the risks so you can make informed decisions and do what you can to protect your article originally appeared on HuffPost. Also in Goodful: This Woman Is Going Viral For Begging Women Not To Get Married Right Now, And Personally, I Couldn't Agree More Also in Goodful: People Are Sharing Their Biggest "How Doesn't Everyone Know This?" Facts, And I'm Honestly Embarrassed I Never Realized Some Of These Also in Goodful: "I Can't Wait For This To Go Out Of Style": People Are Sharing Popular Modern Trends That Are Actually Pretty Toxic
Buzz Feed
20 hours ago
- Health
- Buzz Feed
RFK Jr.'s Health Tracker Plan Raises Security Alarms
If you don't yet wear a smartwatch or smart ring to monitor your health and fitness, you may soon be encouraged to do so by some of the highest-ranking members of the government. During a House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee hearing, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he'd like all Americans to use wearable health products, such as Fitbits, Apple Watches, Oura Rings, WHOOP and glucose monitors, to 'control' their health and 'take responsibility' for it. According to Poltico, Kennedy said people can use wearables to track 'what food is doing to their glucose levels, their heart rates and a number of other metrics as they eat it, and they can begin to make good judgments about their diet, about their physical activity, about the way that they live their lives.' While this remains just a suggestion and not a mandate, it's been announced that the Department of Health and Human Services will launch a campaign to encourage Americans to wear these devices. Wearables can track your heart rate, menstrual cycle, fitness regimen, blood sugar levels, sleep patterns, location and more. They're a great way to understand your health (for example, the Oura Ring lets you know when it thinks you're getting sick) and to stick to a workout regimen (the Apple Watch is both loved and hated for its 'close your rings' reminders). While they can be helpful for the average person, these devices store lots and lots of our data — is it safe for all of this information to be out there? And what happens if this data ends up in the wrong hands — including the government's? Experts weigh in. There is a major difference between the government having access to health data and the government simply encouraging folks to use wearables for their own health tracking, said Alex Hamerstone, the advisory solutions director for TrustedSec, an ethical hacking company. 'Those are obviously two very different questions, and there's no indication at this point that they're looking to have the government have access to that data,' he noted. The government does, though, already have access to lots of health data. 'If you look at the percent of people who receive health care through Medicare and Medicaid and state programs, and so on and so forth, they already have a lot of very detailed information,' Hamerstone noted. 'I know there are guardrails around it and things like that, but not to get into any kind of political thing, but a lot of those guardrails seem to be falling down,' he noted. You should also understand that no matter who is privy to it, health data is very valuable. You've probably heard the phrase 'data is the new currency,' meaning your personal data has inherent value to companies. It's how they sell you ads and understand your needs. But 'health data is just kind of a different category of data,' said Hamerstone. Having your credit card hacked is temporarily annoying, but you're not liable, and typically, after some phone calls and logistics, your life will go back to normal. 'But if someone gets access to your private health care data, that's much different. It's a different kind of data,' Hamerstone said. 'So, somebody knowing how many steps you take is one thing, but if you start to get into things like glucose levels or very detailed medical information, those things could start to affect other parts of your life,' he added. This could impact insurance rates and insurance options, Hamerstone said. Kevin Johnson, the CEO of Secure Ideas, a security testing and consulting company, has concerns about the government's ability to protect any data that is gathered through the use of wearables. For instance, in 2018, there was a major security breach involving the Strava fitness app and the U.S. government in which soldiers' locations at military bases were shared via Strava. 'So, the idea that the government is saying we're going to encourage ... wearing of these when the government had a significant security problem due to this, that's one of the concerns that I just don't understand how we forgot that happened,' said Johnson. Overall, Johnson said, there are 'significant security issues with wearable devices.' 'My company and other companies have tested these devices. We've found vulnerabilities. We have found ways that the wearable technology gives an attacker access to your data because of security lapses in the hardware and software. We've seen multiple cases where attackers are able to gain access to things that are unrelated to the health care data because of security problems,' Johnson said. There have also been privacy violations when data brokers get access to this data, whether they gain access illegitimately or legitimately, Johnson said. (And the companies collecting the data from wearables do often sell your data to data brokers, Johnson noted.) You may not care if someone has your heart rate data from your smartwatch, but it's so much more than 'just' that. 'There are always security concerns when it comes to connected technology,' said Dave Chronister, the CEO of Parameter Security. And your wearable device is most likely connected to your smartphone — meaning it has access to lots of your personal data, according to Johnson. 'No device or platform is completely secure,' Chronister noted. 'Attackers often target the backend systems, such as cloud servers, via compromised employee credentials or software vulnerabilities.' 'Devices that rely on Bluetooth or Wi-Fi can also be exploited, and if the device supports messaging or sync features, phishing or spoofing attacks are possible,' noted Chronister. These devices can also get stolen or lost, which also puts your data at risk, Chronister added. Johnson said he's often heard people say things like, 'Oh, it's just my heart rate data, that's not a big deal,' but it's actually so much more than that. 'The issue is, we're not just talking about heartbeat. We're not just talking about your sleep schedule. We're talking about your location. We're talking about most of these apps tie into your contacts so that you can invite friends,' said Johnson. More, it also may include your reproductive health data, glucose levels or heart irregularities, Chronister said. 'These can paint a sensitive, personal portrait of someone's health and behavior,' Chronister added. 'It's important to understand that data from wearables is not protected under HIPAA like your medical records are,' said Chronister. HIPAA protects patient health records from things like doctor's appointments. 'Instead, it is governed by the company's terms of service ... which often include loopholes that allow for data sharing or sale, especially in the event of a merger or acquisition,' Chronister explained. This is true even if the company says they'll never sell your data. 'That promise can be overridden by fine print or future policy changes,' he added. 'Consumers should be aware that once their data is out there, they may lose control over how it is used,' Chronister said. What can you do to protect your security if you use wearables? 'Almost all of these types of devices have some level of privacy controls in them that you're able to select what data you give,' said Johnson. If you decide to get a wearable, make sure you check your privacy settings and adjust them accordingly, he noted. 'And this is very important — regularly go in and validate that the privacy settings are still set the way you want them to be,' Johnson added. This is really the most you can do to protect your data, and it certainly won't totally protect you from data breaches or data brokers. 'Unfortunately, individual users have very limited control. You are largely at the mercy of the device manufacturer and app provider,' Chronister noted. While you can follow privacy precautions, such as by 'turning off unnecessary Bluetooth connections, using strong account passwords, and checking app permissions ... those measures only go so far,' Chronister said. 'The real issue is how companies store, share and protect your data behind the scenes,' Chronister noted. Chronister stressed that 'it's critical to understand the long-term implications of voluntarily handing over personal health data to private companies. This information can be sold to marketers, shared with third parties, or exposed in a breach.' He voiced specific concern about how this data can be combined via different apps and companies over time to build 'incredibly detailed personal health profiles.' So while it may not be a big deal if one company has your sleep data and another has your activity levels, these companies can be acquired, or data can be combined to create a fuller picture of your private health information. 'And AI is really a wild card. Going forward, it will increasingly be able to draw conclusions and make predictions about your current and future health. This raises serious questions about how such insights could affect things like insurance eligibility, premium rates, or even creditworthiness,' Chronister said. When it comes to health data (and data of any sort), 'the risks are inherent even with the government not involved,' Hamerstone said. Once that data exists, it's at risk of being lost or stolen by bad actors, he added. Keep that in mind before you start using wearable health technology, and if you're already a user, it's important to be aware of the risks so you can make informed decisions and do what you can to protect your privacy. HuffPost.
New York Post
3 days ago
- Health
- New York Post
RFK Jr. wants every American to use ‘wearable' health data-collecting technology
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. wants all Americans to use 'wearable' technology to track their health as part of his 'MAHA' agenda. The Kennedy-clan strongman revealed his agency's plan Tuesday for a massive push for Americans — who have an obesity rate of 40% — to use wearable data-collecting technology such as FitBits, Oura Rings, and Apple Watches, to promote healthier lifestyles. 'We're about to launch the biggest advertising campaign in HHS history to encourage Americans to use wearables,' Kennedy said in a House Committee on Energy and Commerce hearing on Tuesday. Advertisement 3 Robert Kennedy Jr. said he wants all Americans to use 'wearable' technology to track their health as part of his 'MAHA' agenda. X / @SecKennedy 'It's a way people can take control over their own health. They can take responsibility. They can see, as you know, what food is doing to their glucose levels, their heart rates, and a number of other metrics, as they eat it,' the secretary said in the statement, which was also posted to X. 'We think that wearables are a key to the MAHA agenda of making America healthy again and my vision is that every American is wearing a wearable in four years,' he concluded. Advertisement Kennedy expressed the belief that with accurate and timely health data, Americans will exert better judgment in their diet and will even opt for more exercise. The Trump official has previously argued during his Senate confirmation hearing that obesity in the United States poses a national security risk affecting military readiness. 3 Close up of a hand touching a smartwatch with a health app on the screen, a gadget for a fitness active lifestyle. sitthiphong – President Trump's nominee for Surgeon General, Dr. Casey Means, is also an advocate for wearable Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) products. Advertisement In a blog post for her own CGM-producing company, Levels, Means argued that the 'small plastic discs' can 'reduce global metabolic suffering' and provide much-needed help to the '93.2 percent of people' in the US suffering from metabolic issues. Means' Levels technology attaches to the users' arms and sends accurate, second-by-second metabolic data to their smartphone. 3 A diabetic woman with a glucose sensor uses a mobile phone to measure her blood sugar level. Pixel-Shot – Advertisement Kennedy revealed last week that coffee giant Starbucks will make MAHA-inspired amendments to its menu — though the company already avoids artificial flavors, dyes, high fructose corn syrup, and other unhealthy additives. RFK Jr. took his first pound of flesh off of Americans earlier this year when he outlawed the use of artificial dyes in American food products.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Starlink, Oura Rings to help monitor sailor fatigue underway
When the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group gets underway later this year, 1,600 sailors equipped with Oura Rings will embark on the largest volunteer study of crew fatigue to date. During the deployment, the rings will monitor the wearers' sleep length and quality, along with a range of other biometric indicators, to provide commanders with a near real-time picture of units' rest levels and allow them to make changes to support performance and address fatigue. The Starlink internet access now being provided onboard deployed Navy ships will allow the data from the rings to be uploaded securely and anonymously for review both by unit leaders and researchers in San Diego, who will track trends and hotspots and produce reports on the data. It's a step toward the Navy's ultimate goal to monitor real-time fatigue for all underway sailors and prevent future disasters linked to exhaustion. The origins of the upcoming sleep experiment date back to 2017, when the Navy lost 17 sailors in two separate collisions — from the destroyers McCain and Fitzgerald — with commercial ships in the Pacific. Investigations would cite crew fatigue as a factor in both tragedies. While some changes were made quickly — such as instituting a watchstanding schedule that more closely aligned with sailors' natural circadian rhythms — other changes have been slow to materialize. A 2021 Government Accountability Office report recommended that the Navy require 'systematic collection of quality and timely fatigue data' from sailors and use that data to better understand factors contributing to fatigue and how to address them. But as of 2023, the GAO found the Navy still had not fully implemented its plan to use wearables to collect biometric sleep and health data from sailors in real time. Called the Command Readiness, Endurance and Watchstanding, or CREW, program, this line of effort was developed by the Naval Health Research Center and equipped its first sailors with wearables in 2021. But the effort has struggled to secure the funding needed to propel it out of the research phase, said Dr. John Cordle, a human factors engineer with the Navy. 'There's no program of record; there's no research sponsor,' Cordle told Military Times. 'It's an example of a fleet initiative that needs to find a home, up in Washington, but has yet to become interesting enough for that to happen.' With a carrier strike group now equipped with the tech, researchers are hopeful the results will grab attention. 'We're … after helping leadership on these ships understand how the mission is impacting the sleep and the recovery of their sailors, especially as they go on these deployments that involve a lot of stress,' said Dr. Rachel Markwald, a senior sleep physiologist at the Naval Health Research Center and the implementation lead for the CREW Program. 'I think most people understand that sleep is incredibly important to help restore our performance, our health, our capacity,' Markwald added. 'And if we have no idea where folks are related to their own capacity, then we'll continue to just do what we've been doing and push forward without those insights.' While the 2017 collisions created the most significant moment of reckoning for the Navy, they're not the only recent examples of mishaps in the wee hours with indicators that fatigue played a role. Naval Safety Command published a rundown of smaller fatigue-related mishaps in the wake of the collisions. And in a presentation delivered earlier this year, Cordle pointed out that recent mishaps, including the February collision of the carrier USS Harry S. Truman with a Panama-flagged merchant vessel near the Suez Canal and the May 2024 collision of two landing craft air-cushion (LCAC) vessels off Jacksonville, Florida, took place between the hours of 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. Investigations into both of those incidents have yet to be released. For the current study, participation was entirely voluntary, but came with an incentive: if sailors wear their Oura rings — which track 20 different biometric factors and retail for about $200 — for at least 75% of the deployment, they get to keep the tech. Sailors who are less consistent won't face a penalty, but will need to give the rings back. The rings were chosen, in part, because they don't give off a signal or GPS data and are considered passive, Cordle said. 'They connect to your phone [via Bluetooth], but if the phone is not there, it's not a problem,' he said. 'The Chinese can't find a ship because the crew is wearing Oura rings.' Still, even beyond securing a resource sponsor, the researchers know they'll face more obstacles on the way to the CREW vision of service-wide implementation of biometric fatigue monitoring underway. One unanswered issue is whether the service will be able to require sailors to wear the devices. Another concerns the infrastructure that will need to be added to ships to create secure local upload points to transfer biometric data to a central location while bypassing the cloud for privacy and safety. But Markwald said she believes the value of the devices will become clear not only to unit leaders monitoring fatigue but also to the sailors who will get a better sense of their own performance and needs. 'It's not just, hey, wear this device so that we can step in before fatigue becomes a problem,' she said. 'This is a self-management tool as well, and we want it to really be something that the individual can use and hopefully finds some value [in].'
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Finland's Oura went from a tiny Kickstarter campaign to a $5.2 billion startup with Cristiano Ronaldo and Prince Harry among its fans
Mark Zuckerberg, Cristiano Ronaldo, Jennifer Aniston, and Prince Harry have one thing in common: They all own Oura Rings. The Finnish company Oura, founded in 2013, is on the verge of a growth spurt as its niche innovation in wearable tech heads for the mainstream. Demand has boomed recently, with sales set to double this year and nearing the $500 million mark. Oura just capped off a Series D funding round in December led by Fidelity Management, which values the company at $5.2 billion. The capital injection is a key milestone, given that Oura was valued at half that figure just two years ago. The global wearable tech market is set to expand by 14.6% by the end of the decade. Of that group, smart glasses and rings are the ones seeing the most growth. This could be just the beginning of Oura's popularity as the company also has plans to go 'beyond the ring' with its new influx of funding, CEO Tom Hale said. "We're seeing kind of cultural relevance here in that Oura is becoming a shorthand for how you're doing. It's like the doctor's note that isn't a doctor's note," Hale told Fortune's Leadership Next podcast earlier this year. So, what made Oura a worthy competitor to the Apple Watches of the world? Oura was founded in Finland by Petteri Lahtela, Markku Koskela, and Kari Kivela, who wanted to find a way to gather wellness information on one's finger. In 2015, the young startup launched a Kickstarter campaign (like Peloton and Allbirds did), raising over $650,000 by the end and exceeding its goal sixfold. The following year, Oura won a CES Innovation Award that helped establish it as an emerging tech company. From its early days, Oura's approach to overall wellness lured many users amid a growing focus on health. More specifically, the Oura Ring gave people insights on their sleep levels, which hit a 'sweet spot with a particular customer set,' Hale said, according to the Financial Times. Oura's app shows its users a 'Readiness Score,' a number from one to 100 that reveals their preparedness for the day based on various health metrics, including sleep quality, heart rate, body temperature, and more. 'Wearable tech is for anyone who wants to better understand the state of their health and live more optimally for longer,' Hale said. Smartwatches from Apple or Garmin serve daily utility or track exercise but aren't comfortable to wear all day long. They may also need to be charged more frequently. On the other hand, Oura Rings fit more seamlessly as an accessory and have a longer battery life. The latest version, the Oura Ring 4, which launched in October, aims to be even sleeker in its look and feel. Don't let the size of Oura's devices fool you into thinking they cost less. They follow a subscription model that costs $6 a month, while the ring costs upwards of $350. Wellness and longevity are hot topics—and Oura is playing the long game in the tech market by catering to these trends. Celebrities have been spotted wearing Oura Rings, a culmination of the overall clout the device has gathered over the past decade. CEOs think the device boosts their performance by giving them specifics on their energy levels throughout the day. For now, Oura is a leader in the tech it pioneered. Hale confidently wrote off Apple foraying into the wearable ring market, leaving the Finnish company to contend with a small but growing pool of rivals. However, Hale has noticed people pairing up an Oura ring with another wearable—often times, an Apple Watch, he told Fortune. Competitors are in plenty: for instance, this summer Samsung launched a Galaxy Ring, which doesn't charge a subscription fee and is made by one of the biggest tech companies globally. Still, Hale is unfazed by the competition; he argues that it further underscores the unique value of this category of wearable tech. Meanwhile, the Oura Ring is finding new ways to be indispensable: It's been used in marriage proposals and indicated how stressed Americans were in the lead-up to Donald Trump's election. Women are Oura's fastest-growing segment, with those between the ages of 25 and 34 representing a third of the women using its rings. Following Trump's victory, Hale quelled concerns about the privacy of medical data, assuring users that their information would be kept private. "Our business model is we serve you and our goal in serving you is to improve your health," Hale told Fortune. "You think about like some of our competition, maybe they're not quite so scrupulous or maybe they just have stronger incentives to actually, do something with that data that's not, strictly speaking, in the interests of your health. We are 100% focused on it." A version of this story was originally published on on Dec. 20, 2024. This story was originally featured on Sign in to access your portfolio
