Apple is Working on Mental Health Monitoring Using iPhone Data 39
Apple is working on ways to help detect and diagnose conditions such as depression, anxiety and cognitive decline using an iPhone, WSJ is reporting. Techcrunch: Researchers hope that analysis of data such as mobility, sleep patterns and how people type could spot behaviors associated with those conditions, according to The Wall Street Journal. ther measurements could include facial expression analysis and heart and respiration rates. All of the processing would take place on the device, with no data sent to Apple servers. The company is working on research projects that could lead to the development of these features. The University of California, Los Angeles, is studying stress, anxiety and depression, with Apple Watch and iPhone data for 3,000 volunteers being tracked in a study that starts this year. A pilot phase that began in 2020 recorded data from 150 participants.
iShrink? (Score:2)
Uh, just no.
Re:iShrink? (Score:5, Interesting)
They're already passively checking—on an opt-in basis—for irregular foot falls that might indicate an increased risk of falling, irregular heart rates/beat patterns that might indicate heart conditions, loud sounds that could damage your hearing, blood ox levels suggesting you may be ill or need medical aid, motion indicating you fell down and may need help, and any number of other factors or conditions.
If there's something to these sorts of data points being indicative of psychological conditions, I'm fine with them adding detection to their devices, so long as it follows the same on-device, opt-in processing they've been using for all of these features up to now, but if it starts doing "helpful" stuff like, "It looks like you're depressed, so I went ahead and scheduled a visit with a specialist for next week", that'll be a big "nope, keep it far away from me". No one wants their devices tattling on them, regardless of whether there's even anything to tattle on in the first place, which is a biggest part of why Apple took so much flak regarding the CSAM/child porn stuff recently (which, as an aside, has had its rollout indefinitely delayed).
Re:iShrink? (Score:4, Funny)
Clippy the Shrink?
"It looks like you are losing your marbles. Would you like to order some vodka?"
Re: (Score:2)
What could possibly go wrong?
Siri (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
The difference in competence between Siri and Alexa is huge, even though Siri is much older. My wife has a lovely Peruvian accent which Alexa occasionally stumbles over, but Siri is close to useless to her most days.
No data sent to Apple servers... (Score:2)
"Insurgency" is the new "children" (Score:1)
Phlease, "think of the children" is so passe... "Insurgency" is all the rage now... Here is one [slashdot.org] far-Left slashdotter inviting monitoring of his chats "to prevent another January 6th"...
Itâ(TM)s for your own good, citizen (Score:2)
We only watch everything you do because we care. Like a Big, Protective, Brother.
Welcome to Apple. We love you.
Re: (Score:2)
It's not called Apple watch for nothing, you know... /sarcasm
Cognitive decline? (Score:1)
Anyone have a venn diagram of anti vaxxers and people experiencing cognitive decline?
Re: (Score:2)
Before or after they've been infected?
Re: (Score:2)
Ponch and Jon said that if I'm feeling down, just call the non-emergency number and they'll adjust my CHiP remotely!
No, Apple. Enough already. (Score:4, Insightful)
Over the past few months I've been moving all my personal computing off of Macs and onto Intel hardware with Linux when I can and Windows when I absolutely have to because I'm sick of Apple's constant need to nanny, monitor and ultimately report home with every little thing. And it's not just your computing life they want to do that with. It's everything in your life. Step counters were a good thing until insurance companies wanted access to them to "prorate" your health insurance. And yes, that's a real thing that's happening in several companies.
So, now I'm thinking as much as I like my iPhones over the years, I'm not going to have a choice and will have to move off of the iPhone as well. Because I remember when we took those "anonymous" tests back in school to assess mental state and was summarily pulled into the office for a psych eval because my "anonymous" test results showed that I was most likely going to kill somebody or commit suicide or both. When truth be told I was just a dude that preferred hanging out alone and spent most of that time in creative pursuits. But not matching the norm for my age bracket nailed me as a potential school shooter, long before that became a common thing.
I can guarantee you that Apple's mental assessments will be that banally stupid. They'll see some trend that doesn't match what they consider normal and you *WILL* end up reported to somebody over it, regardless of how much they preach "it's all done locally."
If there isn't an opt-out option, and there never is with this garbage, I'm out on Apple altogether. Which really sucks because there was a time they actually made decent, long-lasting equipment. I had several macs outlive my friends' windows machines. But my last mac was a dumpster fire and can barely boot up after three years. And while my iPhones almost always last longer than the five year stretches I put them through, I'm not going to want a phone watching my mental state and reporting it back to the mothership. My baseline happy would probably register as the same as a murderer/suicide candidate just like it did back when I was in school just because I prefer things different than most. And I'm not at all interested in having my phone either constantly pester me to get therapy or reporting me to some authority.
Re:No, Apple. Enough already. (Score:5, Informative)
I'm sick of Apple's constant need to nanny, monitor and ultimately report home with every little thing. [...] If there isn't an opt-out option, and there never is with this garbage, I'm out on Apple altogether.
With the way you just described your experience, I wonder whether you're using an Apple device in the first place, because so far as I can recall literally every single feature of this sort from Apple is opt-in.
For instance, Apple doesn't know your step counts or weight or sleep activity or anything else health oriented unless you opted-in to sharing that data with them, and that's assuming you opted-in to having your device collect or record health data like that in the first place, since none of those features are enabled by default. Moreover, Apple even specifically calls out health data as something that they don't have access to and can't restore if you lose access to your account: in the latest version of iOS, the Recovery Assistance screen in Settings says, "For your privacy, Apple can't access or help you recover your end-to-end encrypted information, such as Keychain, Screen Time, and Health data". So no, that data isn't being "reported home" to Apple by default; you actually have to opt-in twice—once to collecting the data and once to sharing the data—before they'd get anything.
For that matter, I'd be hard-pressed to name anything Apple does that's mandatory or operates on an opt-out basis nor even come up with a place where they engage in dark patterns to get you to share data you'd rather not share. Even the recent CSAM stuff, which has been delayed indefinitely after the flak they rightly took, was limited to opt-in features that are disabled by default, though the media kinda dropped the ball on mentioning that fact as anything other than a footnote.
FaceID, TouchID, Apple ID, Siri, or iCloud? All opt-in and disabled by default. Unpack a new iPhone and and you'll find that there's an obvious "Skip" or comparable button on nearly every screen. You need to tell it what language you want to use and give it a passcode, but that's about it. You don't need to set up FaceID/TouchID, you don't need to sign into your Apple ID, you don't need to enable Siri, you don't need to enable iCloud Backup, and the list goes on. And if you change your mind on any of them later, they can be toggled on or off in Settings (e.g. Settings > Apple ID > Sign Out). Also worth mentioning, FaceID and TouchID live entirely on-device, so nothing is ever reported back to Apple, nor even synced to other devices you own (hence why you have to set it up fresh on each device), and for the last few generations of devices most Siri queries are being processed on-device these days, so Apple's servers receive fewer of them than ever (and they also require your specific opt-in to use your queries to train Siri, though that admittedly wasn't always the case, which they rightly took flak over and publicly apologized for).
Analytics (read: telemetry, crash logs, etc.) for iOS, activity, Siri, iCloud, or third-party apps you use? Opt-in and can be toggled at any time via Settings > Privacy > Analytics & Improvements. They'll ask you to opt-in to some of those when you do major system updates, but there's a prominent button with wording akin to "Do not share my usage data" that's always immediately adjacent to the button that shares data, so no dark patterns there, and if you mis-tap when setting up your device, they provide a Back button so you can change your mind, in addition to the aforementioned Settings page. They even use a specific interface with a specific icon anytime that they ask you to consider sharing data with them, that way you know not to blow through the screen.
Annoyed at "nanny" features like Screen Time? I am too, hence why I've disabled most of them. My recollection is that it was opt-in and that I decided to give it a shot before deciding that it was beyond useless, but that data was end-to-end encrypted, so
Re: (Score:2)
You may be right for past events, that's the era where people didn't know introverts from extroverts and we were flagged as "abnormal".
These days, however, there's so many categories of everything that you may get diagnosed with something you weren't even aware you had and you'll be able to be excluded from things you don't want. As a bonus, you'll finally know which of the 60+ sexes you actually are! /sarcasm
What are they going to do with this (Score:1)
a simple task (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Wanting to Leave the Walled Garden (Score:2)
That's a sure sign of cognitive decline right there. What's that they say about "an Apple(tm) a day"?
Fuck Apple (Score:2)
Same as Screen Time monitoring (Score:2)
LOOP
IF (phone is used > 2 hours per day)
THEN
Book psychiatrist appointment
END LOOP
Re: (Score:2)
My iPhone is running ~16 hours per day, running "progress" games that I check on maybe once or twice per hour for bonuses and crap. That doesn't mean I'm actively using the phone 16 hours per day.
I think they should be checking for physical movement for their "screen time" calculations because the phone is on the desk for about 15 of those hours.
So Apple has never heard of HIPPA (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Heck I've never heard of HIPPA. Did you mean HIPAA?
Re: (Score:1)
https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/index.html/ [hhs.gov]
Re: (Score:2)
Apple was applying to become a health care provider a while back, when they were trying to get the watch certified as a healthcare device.
Only Two Solutions (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
If your phone is exuding, drop it in a sink and open a window, quick!
Until we mature to the point of having standards-compliant, COTS modem ICs and carrier portability it doesn't seem like much can happen.
Plus ca change (Score:2)
Apple [apple.com]: Privacy is a fundamental human right. [nytimes.com]
Plus c'est pareil (Score:2)
Google: sells our personal information and annoys us with ads to get money
Apple: sells us hardware and services to get money
Re: (Score:1)