Should Statistics Canada Use Your Smartwatch Data for Health Research?

Official title: Share your input on Measures to Collect Health Information with the Centre for Direct Health Measures

Closed Policy & Studies Health & Safety Technology & Digital
Statistics Canada wants to know if you'd share health data from your smartwatch or fitness tracker. Right now, the Canadian Health Measures Survey collects data through in-person visits—blood tests, fitness tests, the works. They're exploring whether voluntary data from consumer devices (like step counts) could supplement this. This consultation asked Canadians how they'd prefer to engage with health data collection.

Why This Matters

Got a Fitbit or Apple Watch? This affects how your data might be used for public health research. Statistics Canada is looking for less intrusive ways to track population health—and your wearable could be part of that. If you care about privacy and how government uses personal health data, this was your chance to weigh in.

What Could Change

Statistics Canada may start accepting voluntary health data from smartwatches and fitness trackers. This could reduce the need for in-person clinic visits in future health surveys. New data collection methods would need to address privacy concerns and ensure data quality matches traditional measurements.

Key Issues

  • How do Canadians prefer to be engaged by Statistics Canada for health data collection?
  • What are Canadians' views on sharing health data from personal smart devices?
  • How can survey participant burden be reduced while maintaining data quality?

How to Participate

  1. This consultation is now closed. For more information, contact consultativeengagement-mobilisationconsultative@statcan.gc.ca.

What Happened

The consultation has closed. Statistics Canada has indicated that summary results of the engagement initiative will be published online when available.