Apple Health Notice
Some studies on OA ask for readings your iPhone and Apple Watch already keep in the Health app: sleep, heart rate, steps and the like. With the OA app for iPhone you can share those readings with a study you take part in, study by study and type by type, for the period the study names. This notice explains what is read, where it goes and how you stay in control. You accept it in the app before your first share; it is the consent that authorizes the reading. Sharing is optional: everything else in OA works without it, and a study never sees your Health data unless you choose to share it.
The short version
- A study says which data it needs and for how long. You decide which of it to share, and iOS asks you to confirm each type in Health.
- OA reads only the types you chose, for the period the study names. OA never writes to Health.
- Your readings are stored by OA in the United States, under that study, and go to its study team as part of your participation.
- Never sold, never used for advertising, never stored in iCloud by OA.
- Stop sharing at any time from My health: OA deletes the readings it holds for that study.
1. How sharing works
- A study that reads Apple Health data says so on its page in the app, with the list of data types it needs and the period: a stretch of past days, days to come, or both.
- After you request to join the study, the app offers to share. You tick the types you agree to share, nothing more, and accept this notice.
- iOS then shows Apple’s own Health permission screen, where you confirm each type. OA can only read a type you turned on there. OA never asks to write to Health.
- The app reads the readings of the past days the study names, if any, and sends them to OA. While the period runs, it sends new readings as they appear, including in the background. When the period ends, reading stops.
2. What OA reads
Only the types you ticked, among those the study asked for, each with its time, its value in a fixed unit, and where it came from (your iPhone, your Apple Watch, or the name of another app or device that wrote it to Health). A study may ask for any of: Steps, Heart rate, Resting heart rate, Heart rate variability, Sleep, Active energy, Exercise minutes, Walking and running distance, Weight, Height, Blood pressure (systolic), Blood pressure (diastolic), Blood glucose, Blood oxygen, Respiratory rate, VO₂ max and Workouts. For sleep, OA also reads the stage of each segment (in bed, asleep, awake, core, deep, REM); for workouts, the kind of activity. OA does not read anything you did not tick, and nothing from Health outside the period the study names.
Readings come from the Health app on your iPhone. Apple is not part of this: Apple does not send your data to OA, and OA does not send anything to Apple. Your readings are never placed in iCloud by OA.
3. Where it goes, and who sees it
Your readings are stored by OA, on servers in the United States, under the study you shared them with, next to your request to join that study. The study team receives them as part of your participation in that study, under the consent you gave when you requested to join it. They are shown to OA’s own staff only to run the service and to help you. They are never sold, never shared with data brokers or affiliates, never used for advertising, never used to train models, and never used to decide anything about you outside the study. Sections 2 and 3 of the Privacy Policy apply in full.
4. Keeping it current
While the sharing period runs, the OA app sends new readings as they appear, including in the background when iOS lets it. Each reading is sent once; a reading Health deletes is deleted at OA too. When the period ends, reading stops by itself. You can see, for every study you share with, what is shared and until when under My health.
5. How long OA keeps it
For as long as you share with the study. When you stop sharing with a study, OA deletes the readings it holds for that study, immediately. Deleting your account deletes everything at once. OA keeps a record of your decision to share (the study, the types, the period and the version of this notice you accepted) as the consent record, with the dates you started and stopped.
6. Your control
- Choose the types when you start sharing; a type you do not tick is never read.
- See every share under My health, with its study, its types and its period.
- Stop sharing with a study: deletes, immediately, every reading OA holds for that study.
- Turn off OA in Health: in the Health app, under Sharing, then Apps and services, you can turn off any type at any time; OA then reads nothing more of it.
- Download a copy of everything OA holds about you, your shares included, from Profile → Account.
- Delete your account: removes everything, including all readings, at once.
7. The laws that apply
Readings from the Health app are consumer health data under Washington’s My Health My Data Act and Nevada’s consumer health data law, and medical information under California’s Confidentiality of Medical Information Act. The consent you give by accepting this notice is meant to be the specific, informed authorization those laws require for the collection and the disclosures described here. Your rights under those laws (access, a list of the third parties your data was shared with, withdrawal of consent, deletion, appeal) are described in sections 4 to 7 of the Privacy Policy. OA also follows Apple’s rules for apps that read Health data: no use for advertising, no sale, no disclosure to data brokers.
8. Withdrawing this consent
Stopping sharing with a study withdraws this consent for that study; turning OA off in the Health app stops the reading on your iPhone; so does deleting your account or writing to support@oa-bio.com. Withdrawal does not undo a disclosure you already asked for (readings a study team received while you were sharing). You can share again later: OA will ask you to accept the current version of this notice first.
9. Changes to this notice
Each version has an effective date and a version number, and your share records the version you accepted. If we change what OA reads, keeps or shares, you will be asked to accept the new version before your next share.
10. Contact
Questions about Apple Health data, this notice or your rights: support@oa-bio.com. By mail: Hypersimple Labs, Inc., Attn: Privacy, 1916 Octavia Street, San Francisco, CA 94109, United States. See also our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.