According to Will Sommer, writing in a blog posting published on June 26, 2025, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Secretary of the Health And Human Services Agency, has a "vision for America." Here it is:
Kennedy Jr. shook up his tenuous “Make America Healthy Again” coalition during a congressional hearing when he announced that he wants to ensure every American is equipped with a fitness-tracking “wearable” by the end of Trump’s second term.
“My vision is that every American is wearing a wearable within four years,” Kennedy said. He went on to reveal that a major government-funded ad campaign to promote wearables—a category of digital devices that includes Fitbits, Apple Watches, and similar devices—is in the works.
My immediate reaction, upon reading this report, outlining this "vision for America," is that this "vision" is absolutely NOT A GOOD IDEA.
In fact, to quote the Sommer blog posting:
“Wearables are spy devices,” fringe health figure Mike Adams, who has often appeared on InfoWars, posted, adding that the devices would be “medical shackles” fit for prisoners of a “medical police state.”
Several of Kennedy’s critics are concerned that the federal government could use data from health trackers to impose new medical restrictions on people deemed to be unhealthy. And while that might seem extreme, Kennedy himself has called for people with health problems ranging from opioid addiction to ADHD to be sent to “wellness farms”—exactly the kind of thing mass health data collection could, in theory, help facilitate.
While Sommer associates this concern with a "fringe health figure," let me say that I don't think providing the government with ongoing reports on everyone's personal health data is a good idea. I did, as those who follow my blog postings may remember, teach a class at UCSC entitled, "Privacy, Technology, And Freedom."
Allow me to say, "fringe" commentator though I may be revealing myself to be, that one way to restrict our "Freedom" is precisely by providing the government - and/or private entities, as far as that goes - with an ongoing monitoring of our location, activities, and..... (this is the new one from Mr. Kennedy) our health status.
Thanks for reading my blog. To use a phrase that has been employed in different contexts: "You Have Been Warned."
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Relax (and let your wearable record it)! Wearables have been instrumental in helping solve a number of crimes. Check out what’s been dubbed the “San Jose Fitbit Murder” https://www.wired.com/story/telltale-heart-fitbit-murder/
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