Who Would You Trust With Your Wearable Tech Data?Who Would You Trust With Your Wearable Tech Data?

Trust could be a major hurdle to overcome, according to a new PricewaterhouseCooper study.

Arundhati Parmar

There's an explosive growth in the use of wearables--from 21% in 2014 to 49% today, according to results of a new study that shows the proportion of people that own one wearable.

Interestingly enough, the study--PricewaterhouseCooper's The Wearable Life--proves that health is the No. 1 factor driving consumer to buy a wearable. The firm surveyed 1000 respondents aged 18-64, equally split between men and women, in an online quantitative survey in March 2016.

Yet while health and fitness is what excites consumers, there is a rift between the excitement that they feel in getting a wearable from a certain source and the trust they view that source with. Here's how that breaks down:

It's perhaps not surprising that consumers trust their doctors more than they trust their health insurance company when it comes to feeling at ease that these entities are capturing data through the wearable. But it's revealing that they trust their bank almost as much as they trust their health insurance company to be entrusted with the information gathered through the device.

Meanwhile, 25% of respondents declared they would not trust any company with their personal information associated with wearable technology. The report said that the issue of trust is improving over time and companies can win over consumers by demonstrating that their data is secure and by creating wearable products that are easy to use and improve their quality of life.

Arundhati Parmar is a senior editor at UBM.

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