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A comment on U.S. autism data project sparks uproar over ethics, privacy and intent. Parent comment

Re:U.S. autism data project sparks uproar over ethics, priva... by autoexec on Sunday April 27, 2025 @07:20AM (#43811100)
activities that would result in "identifying themselves as autists" include: seeking a diagnosis in the first place, getting the help of a mental health professional, frequenting support groups and forums, and wearing a fitbit or smart watch.

It's really not a good thing when people, high functioning or not, are forced to choose between getting the help they need and being targeted by their government.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:U.S. autism data project sparks uproar over ethics, priva... by jdrek1 on Sunday April 27, 2025 @07:31AM (#43811140)
> and wearing a fitbit or smart watch.

Since when is wearing smart watches only for autists?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:U.S. autism data project sparks uproar over ethics, priva... by autoexec on Sunday April 27, 2025 @07:54AM (#43811286)
It's one of the many private data sources they were planning to use to track and collect data on autistic people for their database. https://people.com/rfk-jr-to-launch-autism-registry-using-pr...

Autistic or not, giving that kind of health information to private for-profit companies who collect that data to use it against you or sell to third parties was never a good idea even before the government wanted to take it for themselves.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:U.S. autism data project sparks uproar over ethics, priva... by jdrek1 on Sunday April 27, 2025 @10:50AM (#43812350)
Ah, I didn't know that. To me your sentence read like autists out themselves by wearing a smartwatch.

Fully agree with you on that, the less data they have, the better.

[ Parent | on HN ]