Will Insurance Companies Use Smart Appliances to Monitor “Unhealthy” Habits?

Daniel Taylor
Activist Post

Since 2008 Old-Thinker News has been covering the rapidly advancing Internet of Things (IoT). According to CIA chief David Patraeus the IoT will have a monumental impact on “clandestine tradecraft.”

Consumer appliances are now becoming activated and “smart.” RFID chips and wireless Internet connections enable devices like televisions, refrigerators, printers, and computers to communicate with each other and generally make life easier for us. This comes at a price, however. Your privacy is eliminated.

A detailed multi-dimensional image of our daily lives will be built with this system. Individuals to entire group dynamics will be tracked. It will be unparalleled in history. Everything from daily travel routes to eating habits will be traceable. Every day objects will be transmitting data 24/7.

Now, insurance companies are anticipating this hyper-connected future. Will they spy on your eating habits and hike your health insurance costs?

As Mike Adams reported in March of this year, grocery store loyalty cards are being tracked by insurance companies to deny claims and raise health insurance rates. As the Wall Street Journal reported in early 2013,

Your company already knows whether you’ve been taking your meds, getting your teeth cleaned and going for regular medical checkups. Now some employers or their insurance companies are tracking what staffers eat, where they shop and how much weight they’re putting on — and taking action to keep them in line.

In the November-December issue of The Futurist, Richard Yonck writes, “In a world of total connectivity, the rate at which a household consumes sugar, salt, tobacco, and alcohol would potentially be an open book to insurers seeking to control costs.”

With the Internet of Things, spying on “unhealthy” habits will be a cinch. Wi-Fi enabled refrigerators will read RFID tags on grocery products that are placed your fridge, and in turn send that data to the Internet cloud. Are you eating a government-approved diet? Taking your meds? If not, you will be paying a price for it in this nightmarish science fiction future that is soon to be science fact.

Daniel Taylor is an independent researcher, activist, and webmaster of oldthinkernews.com. You can find out more about him and his site HERE