As tech products capture our brainwaves, a new privacy battle is underway | Wilnesh News

“What is thought?” is the question. It is no longer a strictly philosophical question. Like everything else that can be measured, our minds are subject to increasingly technical answers, capturing data by tracking brain waves. The breakthrough also means data is commoditized, with captured brain data already being bought and sold by companies in the wearable consumer technology space with little protection for users.

In response, Colorado recently passed a first-in-the-nation privacy bill designed to protect these rights. The bill falls under the existing Colorado Consumer Protection Act, which seeks to protect the “privacy of personal data” by establishing certain requirements for entities that process personal data, including additional protections for sensitive data.

this Key language in Colorado bill is an expansion of the term “sensitive information” to include “biological data” – including many biological, genetic, biochemical, physiological and neurological characteristics.

Elon Musk’s Neuralink is the most famous example of how technology can become embedded in the human mind, and while it’s not the only example in the field, Paradromics is becoming a serious competitor alongside other devices. Speech to stroke victims returning and help amputees move prosthetic limbs use their thoughts. All of these products are implantable medical devices and are protected by HIPAA’s strict privacy requirements. Colorado’s law focuses on the rapidly growing field of consumer technology and devices that do not require medical procedures, have no similar protections, and can be purchased and used without any form of medical supervision.

There are dozens of companies making wearable technology products that capture brain waves, also known as neural data. On Amazon alone, there are dozens of product pages, ranging from sleep masks designed to optimize deep sleep or promote lucid dreams, to headbands that promise to improve focus, and biofeedback headphones that will take your meditation sessions to the next level. Depending on the design and need, these products capture neural data by using small electrodes that produce readings of brain activity. Some of these products use electrical pulses to influence brain activity.

Current laws for handling all this brain data are almost non-existent.

“We’re entering a science fiction world here,” said Rep. Kathy Kipp, the lead sponsor of the Colorado bill. “As with any scientific progress, there must be guardrails.”

Consumer Brain Technology’s “ChatGPT Moment”

one recent research The NeuroRights Foundation found that 29 of the 30 companies surveyed that are making wearable technology capable of capturing brain waves “do not provide any meaningful restrictions on such access.”

“This revolution in consumer neurotechnology is centered on the increasing ability to capture and interpret brain waves,” said Dr. Sean Pauzauskie, medical director of the NeuroRights Foundation. Devices that use electroencephalography, he said, are one of the ways consumers can Easy-to-use technology is “a multi-billion dollar market expected to double in the next five years or so.” “It’s not implausible that neurotechnology could have a ChatGPT moment in the next two to five years.”

How much data can be collected depends on several factors, but technology is evolving rapidly, and as it increasingly incorporates artificial intelligence, it will likely lead to exponential growth in applications. Apple has Applied for a patent for brain-sensing AirPods.

“Brain data are too important to go unregulated. They reflect the inner workings of our minds,” said Rafael Yusuf, professor of biological sciences and director of the Center for Neurotechnology at Columbia University and president of the NeuroRights Foundation, a leader in the field. Newtok ethical organization Morningside Group. “The brain is not just another organ in the body,” he added. “We need to engage private actors to ensure they adopt responsible innovation frameworks because the brain is the refuge of our thoughts.”

Pauzauskie said the value to the company lies in the interpretation, or decoding, of brain signals collected by wearable technology. As a hypothetical example, he said, “If you were wearing brain-sensing earbuds, Nike would not only know from your browsing history that you browsed for running shoes, but now also know your level of interest while browsing.”

A wave of bioprivacy legislation may be needed

The concerns targeted by the Colorado law may trigger a similar wave of legislation, with greater focus on the integration of rapidly evolving technologies and the commoditization of user data. In the past, consumer rights and protections lagged behind innovation.

“Probably the best and newest technology/privacy analogy is the Internet and consumer genetic revolution, which is largely unchecked,” Pozzaski said.

A similar arc may emerge with uncontrolled advances in the collection and commodification of consumer brain data. Pauzauskie said hacking attacks, corporate profit motives, changing user privacy agreements and the narrowing of laws covering data to no laws are all major risks. Under Colorado privacy law, brain data enjoys the same privacy rights as fingerprints.

Professor Farinaz Koushanfar and Associate Professor Duygu Kuzum of UC San Diego’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering say it’s too early to know the limitations of the technology and the depth of potentially invasive data collection.

Tracking neural data could mean tracking a wide range of cognitive processes and functions, including thoughts, intentions and memory, they wrote in a joint statement sent via email. At one extreme, tracking neural data could mean direct access to medical information.

The wide range of possibilities is a problem in itself. “There are still too many unknowns in this area that are worrisome,” they wrote.

Kushanfar and Kuzum say that if these laws become widespread, companies may have no choice but to overhaul their current organizational structures. New compliance officers may need to be established and methods such as risk assessments, third-party audits and anonymity implemented as mechanisms to develop requirements for relevant entities.

On the consumer side, Colorado’s law and any subsequent efforts represent important steps to better educate users and provide them with the necessary tools to check and enforce their rights if they have been violated.

“(Colorado’s) privacy law regarding neurotechnology may be a rare exception where rights and regulations precede any widespread misuse or abuse of consumer data,” Pawzaski said.