Wearables: Part Two

Neural data could be used to decode a person’s thoughts and feelings or to learn sensitive facts about an individual’s mental health, such as whether someone has epilepsy.

“We’ve never seen anything with this power before — to identify, codify people and bias against people based on their brain waves and other neural information,” said Sean Pauzauskie, a member of the board of directors of the Colorado Medical Society, who first brought the issue to Ms. Kipp’s attention. 

Mr. Pauzauskie was recently hired by the Neurorights Foundation as medical director.

The new law extends to biological and neural data the same protections granted under the Colorado Privacy Act to fingerprints, facial images and other sensitive, biometric data.

Among other protections, consumers have the right to access, delete and correct their data, as well as to opt out of the sale or use of the data for targeted advertising. 

Companies, in turn, face strict regulations regarding how they handle such data and must disclose the kinds of data they collect and their plans for it.

“Individuals ought to be able to control where that information — that personally identifiable and maybe even personally predictive information — goes,” Mr. Baisley said.