I've recently acquired a taste for healthy exercise - walking, mostly. I was thus quite excited to learn that Apple's iOS 8
would offer a Health App, which would keep all my data (sourced from
various Healthkit Apps on my iPhone) in one place for easy reference via
a Dashboard.
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get this to work quite as expected. Every free app I've tried, either keeps popping up ... er ... pop-ups, advertising their "Pro" (read Paid) version, or they don't release you from the Account you've been forced to create before you can link to the Health App. While I can understand the pop-ups, I can't quite come to terms with the enforced Account retention by WebMD, and so I'm confining this post to that app specifically.
On October 5, I downloaded (from Apple's App Store) and installed the WebMD App to try it out. As I didn't like the way it forced me to create an Account before being quite functional (Account information includes not only my "ailments" but my email address and my date of birth), I deleted it off my iPhone. However, I could find no way to then remove it from being the source shared by my Health App. Also, after I removed the App, I found my iPhone battery draining quite rapidly (it had never done that before) and I finally traced the cause, after restarting the iPhone twice, to the fact that WebMD was still showing up in my Health App source, even though the App itself (WebMD) was no longer on my iPhone.
I tried Tweeting about this, hoping one of my "followers" would have a solution but nobody responded. (All this time, my iPhone was attached to a power source, to ensure my battery didn't drain.) I then posted a post in the Apple Forums requesting help. This was on October 6. I don't think anybody at Apple's online Forum read this post (or maybe they, too, were in the dark, just as I was), because there has been no reply till this morning.(*)
In desperation, I downloaded and installed the WebMD App again, went through the whole process of logging in and then removed my device (iPhone) from being associated with the Health App. I didn't delete the WebMD App just yet. I opened my Health App and it was still showing WebMD as a source. How can this be?
I finally figured it out.
When I did remove the WebMD App for the second time, I noticed that it asked me whether I wanted to keep my data or delete it. (The first time I removed it I had chosen "keep.") I chose "delete" this time and, thankfully, it went away from my Health App Source as well. This was not documented anywhere, to the best of my knowledge. Either in WebMD's documentation, or in Apple's Health documentation.
I disconnected my iPhone from the power source and the battery stayed at its normal draining cycle, so that seemed to be all.
It wasn't.
I naturally -- after all the trouble -- wanted to totally have nothing more to do with WebMD and logged onto their web interface, to remove my Account.
I couldn't do so. This option (to remove/delete my account) just wasn't there.
Much research on the web told me that there was no direct link to delete my WebMD account. I could, however, cancel my membership by sending them an email.
The email should be addressed to CommunityManagement@webmd.net (I haven't yet written to them, so I don't know if this email address is valid), "requesting" them to delete my WebMD Account in the Subject line and, in the body of the message I should (politely, no doubt) tell them shortly that I want to leave their community.
Other people apparently have had the same experience, as I understand from my web-research that the official response is that they "don't generally delete accounts." Instead, we can just stop using the account.
In the meantime, my email address, password, my date of birth and all my medical information are sitting on a server somewhere. Oh, yes, I realize security is as important to them as it to me and they'll take every care to see that my privacy is protected.
But, as an individual, that is small comfort when my privacy is no longer under my total control.
I hope this rather long post helps somebody else.
I, for one, am going to do a lot more research before I install any other App on any of my devices.
(*) Edit: October 9, 2014: I guess I was wrong about this, because I just received a reply from a reader on the Forums who suggested a means to stop data collection (which Apple had already documented.) I had, of course, already tried this and it didn't work because -- possibly -- I had already deleted the WebMD app from off my iPhone. One will never know. Perhaps this insignificant fact, too, should be documented somewhere?
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get this to work quite as expected. Every free app I've tried, either keeps popping up ... er ... pop-ups, advertising their "Pro" (read Paid) version, or they don't release you from the Account you've been forced to create before you can link to the Health App. While I can understand the pop-ups, I can't quite come to terms with the enforced Account retention by WebMD, and so I'm confining this post to that app specifically.
On October 5, I downloaded (from Apple's App Store) and installed the WebMD App to try it out. As I didn't like the way it forced me to create an Account before being quite functional (Account information includes not only my "ailments" but my email address and my date of birth), I deleted it off my iPhone. However, I could find no way to then remove it from being the source shared by my Health App. Also, after I removed the App, I found my iPhone battery draining quite rapidly (it had never done that before) and I finally traced the cause, after restarting the iPhone twice, to the fact that WebMD was still showing up in my Health App source, even though the App itself (WebMD) was no longer on my iPhone.
I tried Tweeting about this, hoping one of my "followers" would have a solution but nobody responded. (All this time, my iPhone was attached to a power source, to ensure my battery didn't drain.) I then posted a post in the Apple Forums requesting help. This was on October 6. I don't think anybody at Apple's online Forum read this post (or maybe they, too, were in the dark, just as I was), because there has been no reply till this morning.(*)
In desperation, I downloaded and installed the WebMD App again, went through the whole process of logging in and then removed my device (iPhone) from being associated with the Health App. I didn't delete the WebMD App just yet. I opened my Health App and it was still showing WebMD as a source. How can this be?
I finally figured it out.
When I did remove the WebMD App for the second time, I noticed that it asked me whether I wanted to keep my data or delete it. (The first time I removed it I had chosen "keep.") I chose "delete" this time and, thankfully, it went away from my Health App Source as well. This was not documented anywhere, to the best of my knowledge. Either in WebMD's documentation, or in Apple's Health documentation.
I disconnected my iPhone from the power source and the battery stayed at its normal draining cycle, so that seemed to be all.
It wasn't.
I naturally -- after all the trouble -- wanted to totally have nothing more to do with WebMD and logged onto their web interface, to remove my Account.
I couldn't do so. This option (to remove/delete my account) just wasn't there.
Much research on the web told me that there was no direct link to delete my WebMD account. I could, however, cancel my membership by sending them an email.
The email should be addressed to CommunityManagement@webmd.net (I haven't yet written to them, so I don't know if this email address is valid), "requesting" them to delete my WebMD Account in the Subject line and, in the body of the message I should (politely, no doubt) tell them shortly that I want to leave their community.
Other people apparently have had the same experience, as I understand from my web-research that the official response is that they "don't generally delete accounts." Instead, we can just stop using the account.
In the meantime, my email address, password, my date of birth and all my medical information are sitting on a server somewhere. Oh, yes, I realize security is as important to them as it to me and they'll take every care to see that my privacy is protected.
But, as an individual, that is small comfort when my privacy is no longer under my total control.
I hope this rather long post helps somebody else.
I, for one, am going to do a lot more research before I install any other App on any of my devices.
(*) Edit: October 9, 2014: I guess I was wrong about this, because I just received a reply from a reader on the Forums who suggested a means to stop data collection (which Apple had already documented.) I had, of course, already tried this and it didn't work because -- possibly -- I had already deleted the WebMD app from off my iPhone. One will never know. Perhaps this insignificant fact, too, should be documented somewhere?
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