PhysiAware is an app developed solely for the purpose of research conducted at the University of Minnesota. Use of this app is available only to eligible participants that have provided their consent to enroll in the research study Predicting Smoking with Wearable Technology, and as approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB# STUDY00012088).
This app is not available for public use outside of a research study context. In order to use the app, an enrolled participant will need to enter a code issued by the research study during the enrollment process.
What information is collected
PhysiAware collects data necessary for the research study to function. This includes the data from the physiological
sensors worn by participants (heart rate, galvanic skin response, motion), responses to short surveys and GPS
location.
GPS data is the most sensitive of the types of data that will be collected and can potentially be identifiable.
How the information is used
Individual GPS data is broadly categorized for types of geographical locations (e.g. highway, park, grocery store,
restaurant).
The location information collected by this app, together with physiological sensor data, will be used to detect and predict situations when study participants are likely to engage in certain types of recurring behavior (e.g., smoking a cigarette or using other tobacco products). These data will not be used for any other purpose such as sales, product targeting or any other purpose that is not consistent with the approved study IRB protocol.
How the information is collected
As participants wear the study devices, continuous physiological data and survey responses are temporarily stored on
the PhysiAware app. When an individual in connected to Wi-Fi, the app automatically transmits participant data to a
private and secure database server in compliance with the University of Minnesota’s security standards. Encryption
methods are used on the data during this process and the data is then deleted from the smartphone.
How we store and protect the information
After the raw GPS data is coded for high-level categories of locations, they will be altered by a perturbation method
that will shift the GPS coordinates randomly but consistently relative to other GPS coordinates for the same
participant. As a result, the altered GPS coordinates will still maintain the distance and distribution relative to
each other but will no longer be tied to a specific geographic location. The original GPS coordinates will be
permanently deleted after they have been used to classify the types of locations (e.g. highway, park, grocery store,
restaurant) and altered to become unidentifiable.
Access to data will only be available to those working on data collection (e.g., investigators, study coordinators) or those that are involved in the analysis and authorized to access the data.
Form Date: 3-3-2021
Form Version: 1.1