Federal Privacy Law Doesn't Cover Apps And Wearables

I wish that I could say stuff like this is totally surprising but it isn't. Well, at least for most tech savvy people out there anyway.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, a landmark 1996 patient-privacy law, only covers patient information kept by health providers, insurers and data clearinghouses, as well as their business partners. At-home paternity tests fall outside the law’s purview. For that matter, so do wearables like Fitbit that measure steps and sleep, testing companies like 23andMe, and online repositories where individuals can store their health records.

law like this need to be updated periodically to reflect some of the emergent technologies to cover them properly, however, I am utterly dubious of what congress does overall, so it's better to just leave the HIPPA standards the way they are.

HIPAA is for data related to your direct HEALTHCARE. Paternity data and fitbit data is NOT that.