Sharing wearable and fitness data with an insurer

Whether to share wearable or fitness data with a life insurer comes down to a trade: you give the insurer a continuing stream of personal information, and in return you may get a premium discount, rewards or a faster decision. For some people the trade is reasonable. For others the value is small and the information is more sensitive than it looks. The way to decide is to separate three questions that get blurred together: what the data is used for, what you are promised in writing and what you can undo.

This post lays out the criteria, a decision list and the points at which a professional or your state insurance department is the right next stop. It describes the general landscape, not any one insurer's program. Programs, rewards and terms change, so the contract and the privacy notice you are shown are what count.

Two different things get called "sharing fitness data"

Insurers touch wearable and fitness data in at least two ways, and the right decision can differ for each.

1. A wellness or rewards program after you buy. You own the policy, then you opt in to a program that tracks steps, workouts or health screenings and gives points, perks or sometimes premium savings. Joining is voluntary and does not change whether the policy was issued. The guide on wearables and wellness programs in life insurance describes how these programs generally work.
2. Data used in underwriting. The insurer asks for access to your device data or an app summary while it decides whether to approve you and at what price, sometimes in exchange for a faster process or a chance at a better class. Regulators watch this use more closely, because it affects eligibility and price directly. See AI and data in life insurance underwriting and the post on accelerated underwriting and the trade of data access for speed.

Before anything else, ask which one is on offer. A request that appears during an application is a different decision from an email, months later, inviting you to join a rewards program.

What data might be involved

The specifics depend on the program, but the categories to ask about are:

• Activity: steps, distance, workouts, active minutes.
• Heart and body measures: heart rate, resting heart rate, sleep, weight, sometimes blood pressure or blood glucose readings.
• Health screenings and visits: results from checkups the program rewards.
• Location or device identifiers: often collected as part of the connection with the app.
• Purchases or other behavior: some programs link to grocery or gym purchases.

None of this is automatically used for anything beyond the program. But each item is a separate question to put to the insurer: Do you collect this? Why? Who sees it? How long do you keep it?

The criteria

Five criteria cover most of the decision.

1. What the benefit is worth in dollars

Put a number on the benefit before you weigh anything else. Ask what the discount or reward is, whether it is guaranteed or earned, and what you have to do to keep it. Then compare it to the cost of participating, including a device if you do not own one and any monthly fee.

Here is a hypothetical to show the arithmetic. Say a policy costs an illustrative $600 a year, and the program offers a discount of up to 10 percent for staying active, plus a device that costs $250.

• Maximum yearly discount: 10% × $600 = $60.
• Years to recover the device cost: $250 ÷ $60 = about 4.2 years.
• If a person who already owns a compatible device joins, the cost is $0 and the discount is $60 a year, or $600 over 10 years.
• If the discount shrinks to 5% when activity slips: 5% × $600 = $30 a year.

The numbers are invented. What the exercise shows is that the value depends on whether you already own the device and on how reliably you will meet the goals. A program that rewards behavior you already do can be good value; one that requires you to change your routine and buy a gadget may not be.

2. How reliably you will keep it up

Rewards that depend on continued activity fade if you stop. Illness, injury, travel, a new baby or a bad winter can break a streak. Ask whether a missed month resets you, whether there are accommodations for people with a health condition and whether rewards can be lost once earned. The guide on wearables and wellness programs in life insurance includes a short checklist.

3. What is in writing about how the data is used

This is the most important criterion. Look for specific written answers:

• Is the data used only to give you rewards, or can it be used in pricing, renewals or underwriting of other coverage?
• Can the insurer change the rules later, and must it tell you?
• Is it shared with reinsurers, vendors or data brokers? Under what limits?
• Does it feed any shared database used by other insurers, such as the one described in The MIB report: what insurers know about your history?
• Are there limits on using the data to cancel coverage or raise rates?

A program's marketing page is not the same as the terms you accept. Find the privacy notice and the program terms and read the sections on use and sharing. If the answer to a question is "we may," treat it as "they might."

4. What legal protection the data has

Many people assume health data is covered by the federal health privacy rule known as HIPAA. That rule covers health plans, health care providers and clearinghouses, and a life insurer is generally not one of them. Information you give a consumer app or an insurer-run program is often not protected the way your doctor's records are. The guide on privacy and your life insurance data: who sees it and your rights explains which laws usually apply: the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, state insurance privacy laws and the Fair Credit Reporting Act when a consumer report is involved. The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act does not cover life insurance.

Regulators have also begun to address the use of outside data in underwriting and pricing. New York's Department of Financial Services issued Insurance Circular Letter No. 7 on July 11, 2024, on artificial intelligence and external consumer data, which expects insurers to govern these systems and to test whether they produce unfair discrimination. Other states and the NAIC have addressed similar issues. These rules shape what insurers must do; they do not guarantee that a particular program fits your comfort level.

5. How easily you can leave

Ask how to opt out, whether leaving affects the policy or the price already in effect, and whether your data is deleted when you go. Ask whether a record of your participation stays with the insurer, and for how long. A program that is easy to join and hard to leave is a poor bargain.

The decision list

Use these as a series of if-then checks. They are guides to your own thinking, not rules.

1. If the request comes during underwriting and the benefit is only speed, then compare it to the alternative. Ask whether a standard path with no device data exists, how much longer it takes and whether the price differs. If the price is the same and the delay is a week, the data may not be worth it. If the alternative is an exam that you can easily do, take that into account.
2. If the program is a voluntary rewards program after you buy, and the written terms say the data is used only for rewards, and you already own a compatible device, then joining is a low-cost experiment. You can try it and leave.
3. If the terms allow the insurer to use the data in pricing or underwriting of other products, then treat the program as a higher-stakes decision, and ask whether the use is limited in writing. If it is not, consider declining.
4. If you have a health condition that could make you look worse in the data, then consider whether the program has fair adjustments. Some programs offer alternatives for people with limited mobility or chronic conditions; ask. A lower score caused by a health condition is not necessarily relevant to your risk, but the data could be read that way.
5. If privacy is a high priority for you, then weigh the benefit against the principle. A modest discount may not be worth sharing continuous health data with a company.
6. If you do not understand the answers you are given, then do not enroll yet. Ask the agent or the insurer to explain in writing, and decide after you have the answers.
7. If you join and later change your mind, then opt out and ask for a written confirmation of what happens to the data already collected.

Questions to put to the insurer

Keep it simple. Ask these in writing, if possible, and keep the answers.

• What exact data do you collect from my device or app?
• Is the data used for anything other than rewards? Is it used in underwriting, pricing or renewals?
• Who else receives it, and under what limits?
• How long is it kept, and how can I have it deleted?
• Can you change the program terms after I join? Will you notify me?
• If I stop participating, what happens to the rewards I have earned and to my policy?
• Is any of the data reported to a database used by other insurers?

If the insurer cannot or will not answer, the lack of an answer is information.

Two hypothetical households

These are invented to show how the criteria produce different decisions. They are not predictions.

The Reyes household. Ana, 31, already wears a fitness watch every day and walks to work. The program offered with her policy requires no new device and says in writing that activity data is used only to give rewards. She estimates a discount of about $50 a year. She joins, sets a reminder to review the terms each year and plans to leave if they change.

The Hartman household. Tom, 47, has a heart condition that is well controlled but limits his exercise. During underwriting, he is offered a faster decision if he links his device data. The offer does not say how the data will be used beyond the decision. He asks, and the answer is that it "may be used to improve our services." He declines and takes the standard exam. The process takes longer, and he reaches the same class he would have received.

Both made reasonable decisions. The difference was the written terms, the cost of participating and how each household weighed privacy against a small saving.

Accuracy, fairness and what happens to old data

Two further points deserve attention because they are easy to overlook.

Consumer devices are approximate. Wrist-worn heart rate, sleep stages and calorie estimates are estimates, and they can be wrong in ways that depend on the device, the fit and the activity. A program that scores you on those readings may reward or penalize you for noise. Ask how the program handles missing days, a device that was off your wrist, or a reading that looks odd. If the data feeds anything beyond a rewards score, accuracy becomes a fairness question, and you would want a way to correct the record.

Data outlives the decision. Even when a program says it uses data only for rewards, the data may be stored for a long time. Ask what the retention period is and whether you can request deletion. If the insurer is acquired, reorganized or changes vendors, ask what happens to the stored data. These are ordinary questions in a privacy notice, and the answers differ from one company to another. A policy of keeping data only as long as needed for the program, with deletion on request, is a better sign than silence.

If you are ever declined, rated up or told your price has changed, you can ask the insurer for the specific reasons in writing. State insurance privacy laws based on the NAIC model give many applicants this right, though not every state has adopted the model, and the Fair Credit Reporting Act applies when a consumer report was used. If wearable or app data played a part, ask directly whether it did.

When to get help

Most of this you can decide yourself. A few situations call for others.

• If you do not understand the terms or the answers conflict, an independent agent who is not paid by the program can help you compare the policy with and without it. Ask how the agent is compensated.
• If you believe the data was used against you, for instance, a price change or a cancellation that followed your participation, ask the insurer for the reasons in writing and contact your state insurance department, which takes complaints about underwriting and privacy practices.
• If you want to understand your legal rights, an attorney experienced in insurance or privacy law can explain how your state's rules apply.
• If the decision is tied to a health condition, your doctor can help you judge whether the goals are safe for you, which is a health question and not an insurance one.

The post on myths about who can see your health data when you apply covers common misunderstandings about who can see your information, and how algorithmic underwriting works and where fairness questions arise explains how automated systems use data.

Key takeaways

• Separate a voluntary rewards program after you buy from a request for device data during underwriting; the stakes and the alternatives differ.
• Put a dollar figure on the benefit, subtract the cost of any device and fees, and consider whether you will keep up the activity that earns it.
• The most important thing is what the written terms say about how the data may be used, who receives it and whether the rules can change.
• Life insurers are generally outside HIPAA, so ask what other protections apply and how you can opt out and have the data deleted.
• If you cannot get clear written answers, decline or wait; you can usually join a rewards program later, but you cannot take data back.