Your Fitbit could soon set your life insurance premiums.
Insurance provider, John Hancock (MFC), is now offering discounts to those who continually provide data on workout routine, cholesterol level and other medical information.
The program will operate in partnership with South-African based company Vitality Group.
John Hancock and Vitality will provide free Fitbit monitors to those who sign up, which can automatically send updated activity levels to the insurance companies. Active users can generate discounts on their premiums of up to 15% and points towards items including Amazon gift cards.
Yahoo Finance’s Aaron Task thinks this program could be a boon for the life insurance company, as it navigates a period of stagnating industrywide sales.
“This is a service that's available now in Europe. John Hancock is the first major U.S. insurer to bring it here to the States…You're going to agree to share this data with your life insurer and I think for a lot of people if it's going to lower your premium, why not?” he says. “And then maybe I have another incentive to go to the gym and eat better and do all the things that I know I'm supposed to do anyway.”
While John Hancock said the data would not be sold, the potential for privacy breaches still remain. Task notes that privacy concerns are part of everyday life.
“I think if you're going to not do something because you're concerned about data ending up in the wrong hands you're pretty much not going to do anything,” he says. “I think we should all assume that whatever we do online or on an app is hackable and somebody could get to it. So either you want to be part of the digital age or you don't.”
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