Apple admitted in an email to participants in a scientific study in the USA that it had collected more information than originally stated. With the Apple Hearing Study, which is running in cooperation with the University of Michigan School of Public Health, the group wants to determine the reasons for possible hearing damage in the population. IPhones and Apple Watch devices are used on which Apple’s research app runs.

Ambient volume, heart rate, sports The app collects “certain information”, according to Apple, including the volume of ambient noise or headphones, but also the heart rate and sports data, if study participants use Apple’s fitness app. Apple informed the participants about this; they had to explicitly consent to the data collection. However, data up to a month old also ended up on Apple’s research servers.

This was not the intention, Apple now writes. “We recently learned that due to a bug after enrolling in the study, up to 30 days of historical data for these authorized data types was inadvertently collected.” This was only done with the consent of the user. “However, the consent form does not state that historical data will be collected.”

Bug fixed, update required Apple has now fixed the “bug” as part of an update to the research app. In addition, “historical data received so far has been deleted”. You continue to feel committed to the privacy of users and now monitor whether historical data comes in from participants in the study. If so, they would be deleted, Apple explains. “Please update the Apple Research App to the latest version to get the fix.”

The group emphasized that it had not collected any information from the users using the research app could identify directly. The company refers to its data protection policy, which can be viewed in the application. Apple has already conducted several studies with the Apple Watch and the iPhone. The topics range from the management of Parkinson’s diseases to the prevention of strokes.

(bsc)