Michigan Public Health informed participants in Apple’s Hearing Survey that the additional data it had inadvertently collected had been deleted, and an update to the app will prevent the issue from reappearing.
Apple launched the Search app in 2019 along with three health checks, one of which is for audio health. The Apple Hearing Study is conducted by the World Health Organization and the University of Michigan.
When users registered for the survey, they allowed the survey to access specific data types. These data types include:
- headphone volume
- environmental noise level
- heart rate
- types of work data
The data collected aims to help researchers understand the link between long-term sound exposure and its impact on auditory health. The study was intended to collect only data from the authorized departments for the period after the study was approved.
AppleInsider the error was reported in the data collection by reader Chris Sprague. Michigan Public Health emailed Sprague and other study participants to inform them of additional data collection, and what was done to rectify the situation.
The study had inadvertently collected 30 days of additional data, which was not requested as part of the study. This is because of a bug in the Search app but has since been fixed.
All additional data has been deleted and has not been used for research purposes and has never been accessed by Apple. Individual partners cannot be identified due to privacy restrictions and lack of known search subject tokens as part of how the Search app works.
Bug fix is a simple application, and only requires participants to update the Search app from within the App Store.