Neurotech Companies Are Selling Your Brain Data

Your brainwaves are up for grabs, on sale to the highest bidder, unless a trio of senators can do something about it. I guess that means we’re all screwed.

In the modern neurotech industry, where gadgets that claim to ease your anxiety or help you focus or sleep better are actually siphoning neural data from your brain like The Riddler’s thought-sucking device from Batman Forever. These “wellness” devices, which include headbands, earbuds, and headsets, operate in a regulatory gray area that is rather vast and devoid of the government regulatory eye.

Democratic Senators Chuck Schumer, Maria Cantwell, and Ed Markey are trying to change that with a letter to the FTC. They’re basically screaming that people should be made aware that their brain data is being harvested and sold to the highest bidder, like it was their bank login credentials.

Three Senators Want To Stop Your Brain Waves From Being Sold Without Your Consent

The Senators warn that brain data can reveal mental health issues, emotional states, and other specifics you probably didn’t mean to share as you were trying to alleviate a little stress with the aid of some gizmo that probably doesn’t even work as advertised.

States like California and Colorado have passed laws offering some protections against the reselling of data, but most other states either don’t care or haven’t been as quick to react to a disturbing emerging trend. A 2024 report by the Neurorights Foundation surveyed 30 consumer neurotech companies.

It found 29 of them collect user brain data with virtually zero restrictions. Only half of them let users reject these companies from harvesting their data, and 16 out of 30 don’t even let you delete the brain data they’ve already swallowed up.

The Senators are urging the FTC to act, but it’s safe to say that pretty much nothing is going to get done on that front nowadays, what with Trump’s pro-grifting, pro-corporate pillaging administration in control. For now, maybe keep all gadgets and gizmos away from your brain waves until a more trustworthy government is in place.