How Tech Companies Create Your Digital Twin

An insurance company now requires policyholders to use fitness trackers. What does that mean for the future of surveillance?

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If you’re looking to get life insurance from John Hancock, one of North America’s largest insurers, you’d better be prepared to strap a Fitbit or Apple Watch to your wrist. Last week, the company announced that from now on, it will only issue “interactive” policies encouraging those insured to wear a fitness tracking device.

The program claims to incentivize policyholders to be more health-conscious. It rewards people who track their workouts and healthy food purchases with premium discounts and gift vouchers.

At the same time, it could make John Hancock a lot of money. “The longer people live, the more money we make,” Brooks Tingle, president and chief executive of John Hancock Insurance, told the New York Times.

As for giving an insurance company even more information about your personal life? Marianne Harrison, chief executive of John Hancock, offered assurances that the information will be secure. “We get medical records on people every day,” she told the Times. “That’s more confidential than physical fitness data.”