Muse maker trained AI on users’ brainwaves without explicit notice
Original title: Muse sleep band users weren’t told their brain data was training AI
Interaxon used about 50,000 hours of EEG and later updated its policy to say de-identified data trains models.
A Science investigation found Canadian company Interaxon used Muse sleep and meditation headband recordings to train a brain foundation model without explicitly telling users. Chief marketing officer Nadia Kumentas acknowledged users should be told, and the privacy policy now says de-identified data is used for machine learning. Names and emails were removed first, but researchers warn EEG can still enable re-identification. A review of 57 brain-data companies found few explicit bans on selling that data.
Unconfirmed: The cited EEG studies do not establish what can be inferred from Muse consumer recordings specifically.
- Only six of 57 reviewed companies explicitly said they would not sell users’ brain data.
- More than two-thirds allow brain data to pass to a new owner after an acquisition.
- A 2018 Korea University study identified users from resting-state EEG 88.4% of the time.
- Colorado and California treat neural data as sensitive; Illinois BIPA does not cover EEG.
- Vendors
- Interaxon
- Products
- Muse
- Organizations
- Neurorights Foundation
- Countries
- Canada
From the original article
4 min read at malwarebytes.com
Muse maker Interaxon reportedly trained AI on users’ de-identified brainwave data, then revised its privacy policy after journalists asked questions.
By @malwarebytes · malwarebytes.com
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