Apple's new function can detect depression. It needs to track users' sensitive data, which leads to privacy problems.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple is developing a new iPhone function to help diagnose mental health problems, such as depression and cognitive decline.

This technology may track the iPhone's camera, keyboard and audio sensor, collect data such as users' facial expressions, speech style, sleep characteristics, typing frequency and typing content, and then create an algorithm to analyze users' mental health through these data. This needs to track a lot of sensitive data of users, which may cause privacy problems.

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Create algorithms and analyze iPhone data to monitor psychological problems.

People familiar with the matter said that the technology uses a series of sensor data, including the user's position movement, physical activity, sleep mode, typing behavior and so on. Researchers hope that they can sort out the data signals related to their psychological state and then create algorithms to detect them reliably.

Relevant documents show that Apple is working with UCLA to study stress, anxiety and depression, and with pharmaceutical company Biogen to study mild cognitive impairment.

UCLA said that its research on stress, anxiety and depression began last fall, tracking the data of Apple Watch and iPhone of 150 people. Starting this year, researchers will track similar data of 3000 people.

People familiar with the study said that researchers will track data from iPhone cameras, keyboards and audio sensors, as well as data related to exercise, vital signs and sleep in Apple Watch. Specifically, these data may include analysis of participants' facial expressions, speech styles, walking speed and frequency, sleep patterns, and heart rate and respiratory rate. In addition, they may also measure typing speed, typing frequency, typing content and other data.

The cooperation between Apple and Biogen also uses similar data in iPhone and Apple Watch to track cognitive function, identify mild cognitive impairment, use it for early identification of Alzheimer's disease, and remind users to seek medical treatment in time. According to informed sources, in previous studies, 3 1 person with cognitive impairment showed different behaviors from healthy elderly people on Apple mobile phones.

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The research is still in its early stage, which may cause privacy problems.

However, people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal that these research projects are still in the early stages and may never be used for mobile devices. Because although previous academic research shows that some people with mental health problems use digital devices differently from others, it remains to be seen whether reliable algorithms can be created to detect these situations.

Faraz Hussain, a researcher at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said that for people with severe mental or emotional disorders, testing tools can intervene early and may prevent worse results. He commented on the technology of using smartphones to predict emotions: "This is the ability to spy on how our brains work. It does not rely on subjective self-report, but uses the number' waste gas' that we may ignore in our daily life. "

However, in order to realize this function, it is necessary to track a lot of sensitive data of users, which may cause privacy problems.

It is understood that in the past, most of Apple's health functions were concentrated on smart watches, such as monitoring heart rate, sleep and exercise. Mental state monitoring depends on a lot of mobile phone data, from typing frequency to chat content, which may be more sensitive than watches. Therefore, the Wall Street Journal pointed out that whether Apple's ambitions in the health field can be realized may depend on whether consumers trust Apple to have sensitive data.

Relevant documents show that in order to solve privacy problems, Apple's goal is to let the algorithm process data locally on the device instead of sending the data to the server.