Introduction

In his book, “Going Solo”, NYU sociologist Eric Klinenberg wrote that in 1950, only ten percent of people in the USA lived alone. He put that figure today closer to twenty-seven percent. In the same book, he writes while only twenty-two percent of adults from that time were single, that number now nears fifty percent. As a direct consequence of this phenomenon, technology companies all over the world now strive to find new ways to market their products to an increasingly fragmented and private society. According to BBC profile on Howard Hughes, the inventor, lived in squalid solitude suffering under the yoke of OCD for years. Affording him convenient access to self-care may well have improved his quality of life as well as advanced the understanding of his ailment for others. The tech startup, Scanadu enters the new households of today in a novel way, by enabling a user to control his own healthcare using an app. The Scanadu app and its accompanying investigational device were developed to keep a user informed of his basic health data: pulse oximetry, heart rate, temperature, and blood pressure (Jankowski, 2016). Self-diagnosis based on Scanadu data can prompt a user to seek treatment. It may also prompt a user to believe he knows better than a doctor about his own health (McMahon, 2013). If the stored data is shared to an unethical third party, however, the data could be used to compromise the privacy of user to his detriment. By examining how well the machinery of Scanadu works in conjunction with the potential health benefits of using it; and contrasting it with the potential for privacy abuse, mechanical dysfunction, and antisocial behaviors fueled by a society becoming more reliant on apps than human contact, we will see that this app is an example of a technology to be regulated carefully.