Watch it, Apple!

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Last month Apple revealed their fourth iteration of the Apple Watch Series, which has now more than ever secured the tech giant’s foothold in the healthcare industry. The latest version of the Watch was presented at Apple’s annual Keynote with a major focus on the health & wellness features, including mental health programs, improved heart rate monitoring and even the possibility to create an electrocardiogram (ECG). Making it the only smartwatch ever approved by the US Food & Drug Authority. These ground-breaking innovations could change countless lives for the better, but there’s another side to Tim Cook’s venture into health that should not be overlooked.

Away from the eye of the average consumer, Apple’s Enterprise division is also starting to show an increasing amount of B2B healthcare solutions, supported by the Watch and other health products. For now these are still primarily focused on solutions for corporations such as hospitals – who operate within the health industry themselves, but their scope has already started to go beyond that. Some website pages of the Cupertino-based company seem to aim at partnerships with regular companies, one time even calling it “the centerpiece of your corporate wellness program”. This is further supported by Apple’s very own medical clinics quietly launched under the name AC Wellness, who will provide healthcare to Infinity Loop-based employees and their families. I myself have even already heard of at least one multinational here in The Netherlands that will start with an Apple Watch trial before the end of this quarter. Will health be the next (and one of the last) parts of our private information to be breached by corporates?

What if the current focus on fitness and wellbeing is all smoke & mirrors, disguising a mission to tighter employee control? Would it be possible we’re headed towards a society where for example calling in sick is no longer accepted if your wearables tell your employer you’re not? Or how will actually being sick even be defined in such a situation, will Apple become the judge of your capability to work?

Now to be clear, I’m not saying we are and – to be fair – Apple has a good reputation when it comes to privacy. But the implications of what could be possible with these technologies are simply too big to adopt such innovations at face value. And even if Apple indeed turns out to be honest about its focus for health technology, who can guarantee your employer is too?