{"id":53402,"date":"2014-10-04T06:00:04","date_gmt":"2014-10-04T06:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=53402"},"modified":"2014-10-03T17:43:48","modified_gmt":"2014-10-03T17:43:48","slug":"facebook-may-be-the-next-tech-company-collecting-your-health-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=53402","title":{"rendered":"Facebook may be the next tech company collecting your health data"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mashable.com\/category\/Facebook\">Facebook<\/a>\u00a0may be the latest tech company eyeing your health information.<\/p>\n<p>The social network is reportedly looking into creating a healthcare-related app and &#8220;support communities&#8221; on the site where people suffering from certain ailments would be able to connect, according to a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/2014\/10\/03\/us-facebook-health-idUSKCN0HS09720141003%22\" target=\"_blank\">Reuters<\/a>\u00a0report.<\/p>\n<p>The &#8220;preventative care&#8221; would help users improve their lifestyles, it added.<\/p>\n<p>Details about Facebook&#8217;s plans to enter the healthcare space are limited, but the company may have been meeting with medical industry experts for months to test and develop the app or applications.<\/p>\n<p>The report also added that Facebook plans to launch a health app under a different name as a way to ease up on privacy concerns out of the gate. Facebook has been under scrutiny recently for a myriad of privacy concerns, including one related to\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/mashable.com\/2014\/10\/02\/facebook-new-research-rules-emotion-manipulation-study\/\" data-crackerjax=\"#post-slider\">manipulating users&#8217; emotions<\/a>\u00a0as a part of a research study.<\/p>\n<p>The news comes as at a time when other companies like Google and Apple are dabbling with health and fitness data.<\/p>\n<p>Apple recently launched its\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/mashable.com\/2014\/09\/26\/healthkit-apps-arrive\/\" data-crackerjax=\"#post-slider\">Health app<\/a>, a hub for iOS 8 users to keep track of fitness goals and health-related information, and Google is working on\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/mashable.com\/2014\/05\/19\/microsoft-surface-mini-what-to-expect\/\" data-crackerjax=\"#post-slider\">Google Fit<\/a>\u00a0for Android that tracks similar data across various platforms and wearables.<\/p>\n<p>Although it might seem strange for Facebook to dip its toes into health, its executives believe giving people a way to talk more about healthcare could increase engagement on the site too, the report said.<\/p>\n<p>The site noticed an uptick in those with chronic ailments looking for advice, and creating a place where people could share treatment experiences and other information may be the Facebook&#8217;s way of addressing that demand.<\/p>\n<p>This isn&#8217;t the first time Facebook has explored healthcare. In 2012,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/mashable.com\/2012\/05\/01\/facebook-organ-donor\/\" data-crackerjax=\"#post-slider\">Facebook added an organ donor option to its Timeline<\/a>, as a part of an effort to help those waiting for heart, kidney or liver transplants.<\/p>\n<p><em>Reuters<\/em>\u00a0also points out that Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, who is training to become a pediatrician, recently pledged $5 million to the Ravenswood Health Center in East Palo Alto.<\/p>\n<p>That said, Facebook ramping up efforts in healthcare support is probably more strategic than personal.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Source:\u00a0mashable.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Facebook\u00a0may be the latest tech company eyeing your health information. The social network is reportedly looking into creating a healthcare-related app and &#8220;support communities&#8221; on the site where people suffering from certain ailments would be able to connect, according to a\u00a0Reuters\u00a0report. The &#8220;preventative care&#8221; would help users improve their lifestyles, it added. Details about Facebook&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":53403,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-53402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dr-akwasi-osei"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/53403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}