Screw that. Give the government a way to track my vitals 24/7 and sell that information off to their cronies in the private sector? No thanks.
RFK Jr. Wants Every American to Be Sporting a Wearable Within Four Years
Submitted 3 weeks ago by return2ozma@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
Comments
ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
viking@piefed.ca 3 weeks ago
Vitals? You mean location. They don't give a rat's ass about your vitals.
AdamEatsAss@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
False. All data has value. Vitals can 100% be used to sell targeted ads for pharmacuticals, supplements, lifestyle brands, gyms, and more.
WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 3 weeks ago
They’ll have a lot of fun correlating your media consumption and your vitals to know exactly what you like and dislike, especially about politics. Then they know who to target for layoffs, arrest and/or deportation.
garretble@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I assume they can already get your location from your phone.
cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
My watch runs for years from a coin cell. There’s no way that I’m replacing it with an internet connected spy device that constantly needs to be charged.
elucubra@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
Mine runs on me. It especially likes me waking.
My_IFAKs___gone@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Good ol’ wank-o-clock.
Ultragramps@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
The thought of a low battery alert saying “fancy a wank. M8?” got a laugh out of me
lightnsfw@reddthat.com 3 weeks ago
Mines an automatic. No electricity required.
shalafi@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I’ve got 20 watches and only ever change the Swatch batteries. They’re laughably inefficient. One is an old smart watch, but it needs charged daily and I’m not up to all that.
FriendBesto@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
Tell that to the Apple Watch wearers.
weremacaque@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
If it ever comes to this, I’m going to “forget” to charge mine. Every day since it comes out of the box.
EighteenthNerd@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I’m sure soon enough we’ll be “wearing” them inside our bodies so we don’t have to be troubled to make sure they’re working. Hasn’t that been the Big Tech dream for decades now?
roofuskit@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
They lobotomized the wrong Kennedy.
Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub 3 weeks ago
Man, I feel like sick, what’s my watch say?
status: unhealthy
Can I receive healthcare?
no
oppy1984@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
Health care is only for the healthy.
To see if you qualify for an upgrade to healthy status please input your net worth including all stocks, bonds, precious metals, fine art, jewelry & accessories, private aircraft, and yachts.
samus12345@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
yes, but you have to pay a lot for it
Absaroka@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
You know what else would help? Annual (or more) blood tests during routine wellness checks with your doctor.
Do you know why most people don’t get those?
Insurance won’t cover them.
Maybe start there? Although I’m guessing he has no buddies who would make money from routine blood tests.
Wolf314159@startrek.website 3 weeks ago
The best part is the random bill.
- Go to the doctor. Get blood drawn.
- Doctor send the blood to a lab for the test. Doesn’t tell me who. I don’t care who. It’s their subcontractor, let them worry about it. *Go back to the doctor or get a call for results. Pay the doctor the standard co-pay. *Months later a random company sends me a bill. This is a company that I have never interacted with or entered into any contract with, for work that somebody else (presumably my doctor, but who the fuck knows for sure) asked them to do for them, sending the results to that other person and NOT to me.
The system is broken. If any other company subcontracted a part of their work to a third party, you as the client would reasonably expect that work to be paid through the original contract, not get a bill directly from the subcontractor. I didn’t hire them, the doctor hired them. As far as my tmethic compass spins, that’s the doctor’s debt, not mine. I paid the doctor already.
Or another variant.
- Go to the emergency room.
- Get separate bills FOR THE SAME SERVICE from the hospital, the doctor, and somehow the hospital again but this time it’s the emergency room (which is somehow separate with a different billing company).
The system is not just broken. It is designed to fleece us and train us to always accept whatever debt the institutions decide to levy on us without question.
Geodad@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
As medical bills can’t currently ding your credit score, I just throw them in the trash.
vxx@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
That would be a violation of the hiipa act. Your samples get sent anonymous to the Lab with only a case number. They only know the adress of the doctor.
If your doctor didn’t anonymise your sample and the lab used it to send you a bill, they’re in deep waters.
AA5B@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Or how about the variant:
- submit prescription refill request —- check back —- check back —- check back
- escalate —- “we don’t have your insurance info” —- yes you do but here it is again
- resubmit prescription refill request —- check back —- check back —- check back
- escalate —- “we don’t accept that insurance. Find a new doctor”
New doctor
- “why don’t you take your prescriptions regularly?”
shalafi@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
The doctor bill is separate because they’re not hospital employees. The only have privileges to work at a given hospital, not for them.
The separate ER bill is likely some fuckery I’m ignorant of.
lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
You know what else would help? Annual (or more) blood tests during routine wellness checks with your doctor.
Do you know why most people don’t get those?
Insurance won’t cover them.
My insurance covers this.
phoenixz@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
I love how these extremist Christian Republicans always go on about the mark of the beast and how everyone will be forced to wear it but that the righteous man won’t wear it…
All of them will do this, mark my words. These fuckers are worshipping Satan as far as they know and they’re fine with it.
immutable@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Everyone in America has to give out their social security numbers to every fucking company and government department because it’s the closest thing we have to a national ID.
Why can’t we have a real, secure, National ID system? Because it’s the mark of the beast!!
But now that RFK Jr wants to hunt people for sport I’m sure they will fall in line.
solrize@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
No need for vaccines with 5g chips when the wearable will have one right on your wrist.
piwakawakas@lemmy.nz 3 weeks ago
As a non American, even I can see this is just a scam to further invade privacy and the data used to get increase health insurance costs
elucubra@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
Don’t wearables cause autism?
Alexstarfire@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Only if using 5G.
some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 3 weeks ago
I chose to stop wearing a watch more than 20 years ago. I thought about getting one for the health benefits five years ago, but concluded that I don’t want to have a watch nor cover an awesome tattoo. As a friend once wrote, “wearing a watch is like being handcuffed to time.”
lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
As a friend once wrote, “wearing a watch is like being handcuffed to time.”
I mean, some of us kinda need that.
Zoomboingding@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I have a decent sense of time and an abundance of options to verify it
some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 3 weeks ago
It was a note he wrote down for himself while on strong psycadelics. I don’t think that nullifies the observation.
AntEater@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
“wearing a watch is like being handcuffed to time.”
That’s perfect! I’m stealing this. I HATE, despise, loath in every respect clocks, watches, calendars and any other form of scheduling oppression. Go pound sand - I’ll show up when I show up.
shalafi@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
You would have a nervous breakdown in my house. Clocks in every room and 20 watches hanging in my room.
ayyy@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Do you have children or elderly parents to care for?
ayyy@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
It’s certainly nice to live a life free of responsibility for others, but that’s a massive and selfish privilege.
FriendBesto@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
Do you take your phone everywhere? Does it have a clock you use on it?
So, guess the only difference is that one has an armband and the other you stare at for a lot longer?
If you do not have a phone either, then hats off to you.
some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 3 weeks ago
I leave my phone somewhere in my home and walk into a different room. Which undoubtedly has a clock. It also doesn’t cover my cool 8-bit video game sprites tattoo.
swelter_spark@reddthat.com 3 weeks ago
Yeah, I don’t even remember the last time I wore a watch. No reason now that everything has a clock built in.
Olhonestjim@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Revelation 13:16-17 New International Version 16 It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 17 so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.
Huh. No uproar from the people who believe in this shit? Weird.
OrteilGenou@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Maybe they’re all too busy basking in the warm glow of hell… Nah
FruitLips@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
They are/were anti-vax, that makes chances pretty good.
GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
eat shit and go to hell.
pineapplelover@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
He does probably eat shit so he’s at least half way there
captainastronaut@seattlelunarsociety.org 3 weeks ago
He can fuck right off with all his worm-brained ideas.
kreskin@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
He reminds me of the ‘precious bodily fluids’ general from Dr Strangelove.
floo@retrolemmy.com 3 weeks ago
General Jack D. Ripper.
Guidy@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
RFK jr’s wants, needs, desire to continue breathing move me not at all.
He can fuck off.
If we had a science-backing and non-Nazi government who I had any belief in their ability and will to keep our data safe, this might be really cool. When I first got an Apple Watch and saw all the ways it benefits me I honestly wished everyone had one by default.
Instead, something like this would simply be used to further control people especially women since it can track monthly cycles (to my knowledge at least.)
stoly@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Guess we’ll cut food stamps but tell people who can afford to to get a watch
barneypiccolo@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
Let them wear watches.
markovs_gun@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
American evangelicals when the government suggests getting a vaccine for a deadly virus- “IT’S THE MARK OF THE BEAST DON’T GET IT OR YOU’LL GO TO HELL”
American evangelicals when people they voted for say you need to wear something on your wrist to participate in society - “This is fine”
A wearable computer is much more similar in form to what is described in the Book of Revelation than a vaccine is, but these dumbasses don’t see that because they’re not operating on logic but instead are just doing what they’re told.
orionsbelt@midwest.social 3 weeks ago
casio calculator watch or bust
BigDaddySlim@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Fuck you RFK my Casio can’t and won’t connect to the internet, go swim in more sewage you dolt
DarkFuture@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Anti-science brain worm dumbfuck says what?
Almacca@aussie.zone 3 weeks ago
And I want RFK, along with the rest of these anti-human ghouls to be dropped into an active volcano, but we don’t always get what we want, do we?
lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Sure Bobby. I went and got myself an open-source “smart” watch that pairs with another FOSS app that doesn’t send anything outside of the device.
What? Not like that? Oh, too bad.
Geodad@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I’m looking at getting a Pebble.
Liberteez@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
Dude I used my Pebble way more organically than I ever used my much fancier Fitbit
ITGuyLevi@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
Still rocking a Pebble Steel from a decade ago, I tried a fitbit and Galaxy one but this Pebble has outlived them all. Thankfully I managed to find a silicon band for it when the leather one finally gave up on me.
lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Same, I loved my Pebble Time Steel. I still do, and I still wear it sometimes (still got a week long battery life), but my daily driver is my PineTime.
FriendBesto@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
He never said that he wants your data. Like, at all.You are just projecting. The Apple Watch BS claim is from the publication linked, not from him.
In fact, going by he actually said, you are doing exactly what he wants you to do. Use the data, if you want, to make better life and nutritional choices.
Keep doing it. You American seems to need it given your country’s general health stats.
lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Yes, I am projecting, I will fully admit that. Which is why, as a watch person, I went with a smart watch solution that doesn’t mine my data.
ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
What about sporting insertables instead?
Lemminary@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I’m gonna need a detailed explanation of exactly what you mean, for the purposes of clear and effective communication.
phutatorius@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
They try pushing a warable onto me, and I’ll insert it in them.
EighteenthNerd@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
From: theguardian.com/…/rfk-maha-ultra-processed-foods
A key adviser to Kennedy, Calley Means, could directly benefit from one of the campaign’s stated aims: popularizing “technology like wearables as cool, modern tools for measuring diet impact and taking control of your own health”.
Calley Means is a senior Kennedy adviser, and was hired as a special government employee to focus on food policy, according to Bloomberg. He founded a company that helps Americans get such wearable devices reimbursed tax-free through health savings accounts.
Casey Means is Calley’s sister. She also runs a healthcare start-up, although hers sells wearable devices such as continuous glucose monitors. She is Kennedy’s nominee for US surgeon general, and a healthcare entrepreneur whose business sells continuous glucose monitors – one such wearable device. Calley Means’s company also works with Casey’s company.
Due to Calley Means’s status as a special employee, he has not been forced to divest from his private business interests – a situation that has already resulted in an ethics complaint. Consumer advocates, such as the non-profit group Public Citizen, had warned such hiring practices could cause conflicts of interest. HHS did not respond to a request for comment about Calley Means’s private business interests, or his role in crafting the publicity campaign.
PattyMcB@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Something something government tracking with microchips
SleepyBear@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Mandating Americans use ‘wearables’ for health reasons thats coming from the same party that, when asked to wear a mask during a worldwide pandemic for the public health decried government overreach, claiming it was like living in nazi germany, and even discredited Fauci over his very true claims of wearing masks helping to save lives. I truly cant wait to see what that side has to say about Junior here, gotta keep that same energy right??
EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Thing is putting the horrific privacy concerns aside it’s not like it’s a bad idea from a health perspective. Everybody being simply more aware of the things their body is doing is immensely helpful on a societal scale.
Problem is there aren’t any devices that are local only or otherwise truly private. Apple stores your data locally on your phone which is good, but there’s no guarantee it’ll always be that way.
Pass a law that protects wearable health data under HIPAA and I’d consider it.
phutatorius@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Pass a law that protects wearable health data under HIPAA and I’d consider it.
And then the next bunch of fascists come in and seize all that data. Or the TLAs do it covertly.
We need strong data protection laws, but we also need strong technical measures to prevent intrusion.
OrteilGenou@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
And robust incentives for the good guys to keep a step or two ahead of the jerks
LordCrom@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
HIPAA data is protected…until it isn’t. Laws change. Especially when companies are salavating to access health data.
infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
Laws don’t even have to change if nobody is enforcing them.
ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Laws don’t work any longer. Only for poor folks.
sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
Gadgetbridge?
shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
As long as the wearable contains open source software and preferably open source hardware, then sure, I’d be willing to do so. Because then I could know that I could control where the data went.
Ledericas@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
Sporting a wearable pump that injects worm eggs into your blood periodically
dermanus@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
So the vaccine is the government implanting a tracker into me, but watches that track my vitals and send them God knows where is hunky dory?
These anti government types always have such a hard time when they become the government.
Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
Every accusation is a confession and all that
FriendBesto@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
Having watched his actual statement, is not that they want your data. That’s a red herring in the article.
But that the average American is so out of touch with how food --presumably bad, shitty food and nutrition-- interacts with their body, that them being able to know of how, for examole, that 2nd Coke, and bag of chips is screwing up your insulin levels, and how it get affected in real time could be a positive drive for change. The fact is that the USA has an obesity pandemic and most people’s knowledge of nutritional science can be laughable at best. 60+% of Americans are overweight. And 33% are literally obese, including kids.
You do not have to buy a wearable. They are not making or forcing to you wear a wearable and they are not going to ask you to show papers before you want to enter a restaurant proving that you use or own a wearable. He said that he would prefer it because how do you empower people who know next to nothing? Is it the only way? Nope. Of course not, but the system has been so captured by interest groups that many changes may not be politically feasible. They could be done in theory but not in practice right now. Europe had s superior take on nutrition than the USA, for example.
Personally, I would never wear a wearable but I also spent a lot of time studying Nutritional Science and attempt to leave a healthy lifestyle. It is an extra load of work that cuts into other things and not many may want to do but it is one that it is worth doing for yourself and the family.
Additionally, I have friends who are Doctors and the concept of wearables is not always well received. Privacy concerns aside, the worry is that it can turn a lot of people into hypochondriacs if they do not fully understand some basics of human anatomy and take raw data out of context. Not to mention a waste of resources if people want to run tests for absolutely everything they think might be wrong with it. It can also be a source for unnecessary stress in some people.
ksigley@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
Bro wrote a novel just to say they’re dumb as rocks. Lmao.
sqgl@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
You haven’t researched as well as you think you have. Even freshly squeezed juice is unhealthy. You need the pulp too in order to slow the sugar metabolism, in which case you may as well just eat fruit.
Check Robert Lustig re sugars.
andros_rex@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
A substantial part is that our food is filled with shit.
They add sugar to everything. Food marketing is insane, and so much of it should be illegal.
Sometimes I want to buy juice that doesn’t have a shitload of sugar in it. Getting a load of bread will involve eating extra sugar. The country subsidizes corn, so high fructose corn syrup is added to everything.
Unregulated hell capitalism means that food gets to be pumped full of shit. Broke and stressed people rely on convenience foods - which don’t need to be unhealthy but are purposefully made so with addictive ingredients.
tartarin@reddthat.com 3 weeks ago
A wearable will be totally useless if the owner has no clue what he should do or don’t. Leaving people with a guilty mood will not help anyone. You cannot improvise yourself a nutritionist and most people cannot. The facts are you must first know how to cook because you will not find a healthy diet in the frozen meal aisle. As you cannot improvise yourself a kinesiologist. That guy, Robert Fucking Kennedy doesn’t know shit about how to turn unhealthy people into healthy people. He’s just a fucking dork with no real life experience.