Brain gadgets are capturing and selling our thoughts! ?? Brain Week ??
Marco van Hurne
I build Agentic AI companies | Data Science Strategist @ Beyond the Cloud | Data Governance | AI Compliance Officer Certified
This is the first article in a series of six about the brain. I'll be showing you some of the latest developments in brain-machine interfacing, artificial intelligence, wetware and bio-compters, and more
? Let's get on with it !
Some time ago I was having trouble sleeping
My creative juices apparently would only flow when I was either in the bathroom, or nearly asleep. This impaired my thinking during the day so much, I was even considering taking sleeping pills. But instead of grabbing a bottle of pharmaceuticals, I decided to buy the Omnipemf NeoRhythem.
A rather strange name, for an ever stranger looking device (let's call it ON from now on).
The OmniPEMF NeoRhythm ?
The ON is a wearable that you put on your head or neck. It uses what they call Pulsed Electromagnetic Field therapy (hence the omniPEMF) to improve your sleep, or induce lucid dreams, relieve pain, and whatnot.
Before buying, I did a lot of research about the effects of magnetic fields on different brain regions.
The field strength is in the micro Tesla range, so it wasn't heating up my brain.
It works by "modulating" your brain’s natural rhythms like your circadian rhythm (aka sleep cycle).
That helps you get to the mental or the physical state that you're aiming for. And apparently there is a positive correlation between electromagnetic stimulation of certain brain parts, and inducing the wanted effects, as described above.
At first, I was sceptical about it, because I read some negative reviews, but hey, you are either a tech innovator, or you aint. So, I decided to give it a shot. I powered up the device, selected Lucid Dreaming in the App; double tapped the sleak device to turn it on, and put the "horseshoe" looking contraption on my head.
I had the most amazing dream ever.
Wow.
I was sold.
After wearing it for a few nights, I began to notice a difference. My mind was quieter when it needed to be, and my sleep started to improve little by little.
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Capturing and selling neural data ?
As I explored more about brainwave technology, I realized that my ON was just a small part of a much larger and fast growing field of devices.
Gadgets like ON is a growing trend in consumer tech where products are designed to interact with our brainwaves.
These products range from sleep masks to meditation sets, anti-depression bands to biofeedback headsets from providers like ON, Muse, Thync etc. (see below for a list devices).
These things have become widely available and nearly all of them capture neural data.
Now the things is - and I wasn't aware of that - that your brainwave data (aka neural data) can be commodified and sold to third parties, with few safeguards in place.
EEG Gadgets are classified as lifestyle or wellness products.
When I first read about this, I was thinking, "But what about my privacy?"
...... I don't want anyone snooping around in my brain!
Well, it turns out that "medical" devices are protected by HIPAA's privacy rules in the US, the Medical Device Regulation in the EU, and the Medical Device Rules in India.
But things get a little wild in the consumer tech world. Because products like ON, and others (See table below) are allowed to capture and sell brainwave data, because it is NOT specifically addressed in the privacy legislations such as GDPR (EU), CCPA/HIPAA (US), DPDA (India, Asia).
The reason why?
Devices like ON, and other consumer gadgets that interact with brainwaves are not regulated under the same laws as medical devices because they are generally classified as wellness or lifestyle products.
The table below shows a list of 16 EEG devices, what they offer, and if they could potentially share data with third parties.
The value of neural data ?
Brainwave data is valuable because it provides insights into a person’s cognitive | mental state, emotions, and attention levels.
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Traditional data just tracks actions, but brainwave data is different from "traditional" data, because brainwave data reveills how someone feels or how their brain is functioning during certain activities.
This information is useful in things like neuro-marketing.
There it could help some companies refine their strategies based on neurological responses. Think of companies like Neurable, which is at the forefront of brain-computer interface (that's BCI) technology. They actually use brainwave data to create immersive experiences in Virtual Reality. Their tech makes their users able to control VR environments using their thoughts !
That is nice, but to me this feels like they are reading my diary out loud in front of the whole class.
Neurable also makes use of AI that allows their stuff to interpret the complex data which is generated by the brain and it can translate that into actionable commands that their device can understand. Think of things like capturing EEG and filter out noise (signal processing), and to recognize specific patterns in the brainwave data that corresponds to different thoughts or commands (pattern recognition).
Companies could sell-off your neural data
On the other side of the equation are the providers of brainwave-capturing devices, that benefit from monetizing this data.
They might sell collected brainwave data to researchers, who use it to understand user behavior or develop new products. Companies may also partner with research institutions, where they share anonymized data to support studies in for instance cognitive health. Another method is integrating brainwave data with other personal information to create detailed user profiles for targeted advertising, although that seems the least likely option.
Some companies even could go as far as licensing the data to other firms in say neurotechnology like for instance the Neurable, or the Neuralink to improve their AI algorithms to improve the accuracy of their brain-computer interfaces (BCIs).
That, to me, seems the most plausible business case of them all
And because neurotechnology like the previously mentioned consumer gadgets, but also the intrusive (Neuralink from Elon Musk) or non-intrusive (Neurable) BCIs, are becoming more widely available, there is a profound risk that your brain-wave data could become as widely circulated as credit card data.
These recent developments has prompted states like Colorado to enact laws that protect neural data as sensitive information.
Colorado has classified consumer brain waves as "sensitive data", and as such, they are subject to the Colorado Privacy Act (CPA) ! (for the act, click here)
Yeah !!
And this is a very, very good thing, because with AI joining the party, and new applications popping up like mushrooms, AI legislation needs to keep up, and establish some ground rules in this new era of brain-computer interaction before things get too wild.
What can I do to protect my thoughts ?
Well, blockchain could be something to protecting your brain data.
Because as BMIs become more common, we should be worrying about how our brainwaves are getting hacked, and not just our emails.
Like, who wants their thoughts up for grabs?
Right..
Well, Blockchain’s decentralized system can keep that from happening. It makes your data transparent and tamper-proof.
You would not want random people to read you brain thoughts right? That is where blockchain shines.
Because it uses smart contracts to set up who gets to see your brainwaves and when. And maybe you allow your doctor to check your data, but that weird app you downloaded last week?
Nope, blocked.
You get to decide, not some data-hungry corporation, out to make more dough!
Be very picky about the brain-computer stuff you buy and use. Not all gadgets are created equal, especially when it comes to privacy.
Pick devices from companies that clearly talk about your privacy and are upfront about their data practices. And dig into their privacy policies to find out who gets access to your brain data and for what kind of purpose.
The last thing you want is some random app or shady company selling off your neural patterns to the highest bidder.
If they aren’t transparent, it might be time to look elsewhere.
Right now, a lot of these brainwave-reading devices aren’t covered by the same privacy laws as medical devices. That means there’s a big gray area that companies could exploit.
It’s up to us and apparently also the state of California (who is always at the forefront of AI regulation by the way) to demand stricter regulations that treat neural data as sensitive as any other personal information.
Keep an eye out for new privacy laws, support those that protect neural data, and stay informed.
Meanwhile, I am still going to use the ON, and having very vidid dreams !
* I have written to the support or press departments of Muse, Thync, NeoRhythm, to get a statement if they share neural data with third parties. I've also contacted Neurable to find out if they use brainwave data from third parties to train their AI. I will share my findings in the comments whenever I have them
Well, that's a wrap for today. Tomorrow, I'll have a fresh episode of TechTonic Shifts for you. If you enjoy my writing and want to support my work, feel free to buy me a coffee ??
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Commercialization Expert | Award Winning Marketer & Communicator | IDEO Alum
2 个月Hi Marco -- thanks so much for including Neurable in this article, and apologies that we didn't receive your messages. It looks like you've got some outdated information that we'd be happy to help update with you if you want to chat you can reach me at [email protected] and we can set up some time together!