LiveLongAgeWell

Several LLAW readers have told me they took the RealAge® online test, which is supposed to measure your biologic age. After you answer about 150 questions, it spits out your “real age”, and a number of health hints tailored to your answers.

Last week the New York Times created a stir when it revealed RealAge sells the data generated from visitors’ answers to various pharmaceutical company “partners”. If a site visitor had checked “Yes” to any number of  questions during the age test, then…expect to start getting emails from your new drug company partners! Sites like patientslikeme.com do the same.

I looked at RealAge® about a year ago (I’m suspicious of any website that is trademarked), and in taking the test, I noticed a number of questions geared towards signing me up and becoming their partner. For example, if I said “Yes” to questions like “Would I like to improve my overall health” or “Would I like to stay on top of the latest health research, etc.”  (Well, of course I do!! I’m writing a health care blog!!)

But still I felt squeamish about leaving so much personal personal health data—and financial information, like income—along with my email address, so I left the site. But many others have completed the test; something like 27 million! Wow.

If you are a RealAge® member, I urge you to read the Times article to see what’s happening with your personal information. Here are my favorite quotes from this article:

Pharmaceutical companies pay RealAge to compile test results of RealAge members and send them marketing messages by e-mail. The drug companies can even use RealAge answers to find people who show symptoms of a disease — and begin sending them messages about it even before the people have received a diagnosis from their doctors.

While few people would fill out a detailed questionnaire about their health and hand it over to a drug company looking for suggestions for new medications, that is essentially what RealAge is doing.

The blogosphere is hopping with this controversy. You might be interested in checking out these blogs:

theblogthatatemanhattan.blogspot.com
CitizenVox.org
Ourbodiesourblog.org

Next: Dr. Oz, Oprah, medical experts