Health Law Daily Wrap Up, FEDERAL LEGISLATION NEWS: Fitness App Privacy Bill Clears Senate Committee, (Jul 31, 2026)
Organizations Mentioned:Federal Trade Commission
By Tom Leithauser
Users of smartwatches, fitness apps, and similar health-monitoring technologies would have to be told how their health data might be used and given a chance to opt out of its collection under legislation approved today by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.
An amended version of the Health Information Privacy Reform Act (S.B. 3097, 119th Cong. (2025)) cleared the committee by a vote of 22-0 in today’s markup, which was originally scheduled for July 22 (CPR, July 21).
The bill would require the Department of Health and Human Services, in consultation with the Federal Trade Commission, “to establish privacy, security, and breach notification requirements for identifiable health information held by entities that generally are not covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), such as certain health applications, wearable-device platforms, and other consumer health technology companies,” according to a summary.
“Ensuring that patients have robust privacy protections in place is essential to take full advantage of modern technology,” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R., La.), the committee’s chairman and sponsor of the bill, said during today’s markup.
“Currently, Americans have few legal protections and control over their health information captured by devices. My bill would create a framework so that health data that is not covered by HIPAA is subject to robust privacy protections,” Sen. Cassidy explained.
Other provisions of the bill would direct the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine “to conduct a study on the risks and benefits of compensating patients for sharing identifiable health data for research,” the summary says, and HHS would be required to “establish unified national standards for de-identifying applicable health information.”—Tom Leithauser, tom.leithauser@wolterskluwer.com
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