Legal and Ethical Issues

There are more personal concerns to consider here in addition to outside security threats. Though under no circumstances will a US citizen be compelled to tender evidence against themselves, there are private situations where users are willing to surrender that right. By signing an interminably long, or vaguely worded consent agreement for Scanadu, one may surrender his own rights. We willfully allow ourselves to be searched at airports in the name of safety, perhaps not realizing that TSA agents did in fact keep body scan data despite many assurances that they were not stored (McCullagh, 2010). Also, in the case of voluntary drug-testing for employment, for example, someone does turn over evidence that can be used against them. But, since it takes place outside of the courtroom, the legal issue does not strongly arise. Even so, being precluded from a job or health coverage because of hacked, leaked, or sold private data is a palpable consequence. Scanadu clearly asks for consent at several stages along the way. Though they may appear to be a health app with the user’s best interests in mind, the lack of liability it possesses in relation third parties should give all users a moment a pause when signing up for the service. It appears to take the ownership of the data away from the end user and put in the hands of entities who may not have that user’s best interests at heart, or even the best interests of the app’s designer.