What do you all think about how hearing aids function? What is the best way to use them privately and responsibly? Are there brands that are more or less privacy respecting?
It seems like there should be a lot of the same concerns as people are having with smart glasses. Modern digital hearing aids have an always on recording device processing people’s conversations without their consent, which are filtered through an AI to reduce feedback. Newer models have functions like autotranslation of foreign languages. There is not typically a direct recording function, but, since they can be used as input for phone calls, it’s feasible to record audio with them. Someone may have limited choices about what brand of hearing aids they get due to insurance.
They also have bluetooth, meaning many people have their hearing aids connected to a device that’s not secure or private. Usually the hearing aids can only connect to one device at a time, but there may be no verification process. Mine will pair to the first device to request it with no further involvement by myself, but only immediately after being powered on. They stop pairing new devices after a while after being powered on, but there is no way to see what devices they are paired with.
Mine come with a privacy policy that states they collect information like what phone you use and will aggregate anonymized data. They also share personal data with third parties who provide services and list some services, but then say it may also be for “other services.”
The policy doesn’t seem especially predatory considering what they are doing. It doesn’t say they use my conversations to train AI or that they send my phone conversations to the vendor. That makes them better than meta smart glasses, but there are a lot of potential issues.
I’ve tried take steps to better secure my phone since it is usually connected with the hearing aids. That also ensures the hearing aids are not paired with an unknown device. I also firewalled the phone application since there’s no good reason for it to be connecting to the internet. Overall there’s not much info about this.
No one else replied so I’ll just affirm that I think you’re doing the right thing in terms of best practices you can practically choose to make. An obvious answer is to try to find ones which don’t connect to Bluetooth or the internet at all (perhaps older models?) but I’m guessing those are either hard to come by, not covered by insurance, or are a significant downgrade in quality. It’d be good to see pressure applied on companies and governments to force more secure and privacy respecting accessibility devices.
Thanks! I figured it meant no one knew more than me due to it being a specialized topic. Maybe I should try to learn more about the different brands and such and make another post. Someone else will be likely to wonder about this eventually.
The reason why they use an AI is because there can be feedback and distortion in the hearing aids. I haven’t used older hearing aids, but I remember from when I was younger that a lot of people with severe hearing loss would refuse to use older models. Without bluetooth, which started to be used around 2005, it would be harder to configure the hearing aids. They are small, located where you can’t see while wearing them, and there is a bacteria risk of handling your ears in public spaces. Better bluetooth and pairing management would help a lot here.
Another factor with this is that, if you’re going through insurance, you get an audiologist who helps you. They look at your tests or do new ones. They consider the different types of hearing aids, the different type of receivers, and make a mold of one or both ears if needed. Once assembled, they configure the assembled hearing using a computer program. It automatically probes your hearing while you wear the hearing aids. The audiologist provide parts needed for maintenance and readjusts as your situation changes. This is a very different experience than going on ebay and getting an ancient model.
Since I have medicaid, there is exactly one local place where I can go for this. They provide exactly one brand, while I pay $0. Other people may have more options. For instance, there is an analog one still being made called Phonak Lyric. It is too small for Bluetooth, but without insurance you would be paying around $1500 more every year.
There are some OTC or less mainstream models, which I don’t know much about, but are available more cheaply. You lose the technicians expertise, but they look like they would work well in some contexts. AI is pretty good at interpreting medical tests if you don’t mind de-HIPAAing the info. You can instruct the website not to use your info in AI training using privacy settings and then delete the convo from your logs. That could help someone to understand if OTC fits their situation and to make a choice if they are okay with that privacy trade off.
Overall this is a very complex topic I didn’t need to know anything about until recently. There should be a word for when you feel very fortunate and unfortunate about your situation at the same time.
BT LE as less bluetooth sniffers are capable of discovering such devices, but this is a silly solution.
AFAIK BT LE privacy options aren’t used by any manufacturer
The ones that allow you to use the hearing aids without the app, i suppose. I know that BT LE supports more commands that are specific to hearing aids, so having an app to control them isn’t necessary anymore.
Some earbuds manufacturers even bake firmware updated into an apk, making it possible to update the device without granting an app network permissions on Graphene. I could imagine hearing aids brands doing the same.