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Privacy & Data

Apple’s Health App Update Makes Keeping Track of Your Medical Records Way Easier

SELF:

Apple’s latest update could make keeping track of your medical records a whole lot easier.

The company’s most recent release, iOS 11.3 beta, includes a major addition to the Apple Health app: a Health Records feature that lets customers pull up their medical records on their phones whenever they want.

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Per the press release from Apple, the data will be encrypted and protected via the passcode on your phone. But Michelle De Mooy, director of the Privacy & Data Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology, tells SELF that even with these measures, it’s “not possible” for Apple (or any company) to mitigate every security risk that accompanies this kind of data storage.

“Phishing attacks remain a threat, as do lost, stolen, or otherwise compromised devices,” De Mooy said in an email, which are all possibilities when you’re keeping any sensitive information on any device. “And of course, researchers uncover new security vulnerabilities on a daily basis,” De Mooy says.

Full story here.