Protecting Brain Data Amid Rise in Neurotechnologies

As technologies that capture brain activity—from implantable neural devices to brain scans to consumer wearables—become more prevalent, pressing questions are emerging for state and federal policymakers about how best to safeguard the neural data being generated. This fast‑growing category of data is often more sensitive and harder to de‑identify than other types of health information, heightening the urgency for stronger protections and regulation.

A new perspective piece published in Neurology by Michael Young, MD, MPhil, of the Mass General Brigham Neuroscience Institute, and colleagues describe the tensions between privacy protections and responsible innovation when it comes to neural data. They emphasize that safeguarding this data is not solely the responsibility of researchers and policymakers. Clinicians, they argue, should be implementing deliberate, ethically informed practices now—even as formal regulatory frameworks continue to evolve.

“While the rise of neural devices and data is advancing the field of neurology, we’ve reached a crossroads where everyone—from legislators to healthcare professionals to individuals—needs to consider how neural data is collected and managed responsibly,” said Young. “Our analysis provides an actionable starting point for doing so.”

Paper cited: Young, MJ. et al. “Safeguarding Neural Data” Neurology DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000214942

Authorship: Michael Young, David Simon and Barbara Evans

Funding: This work was supported in part by the NIH under award number (K23NS140495) and the Mass General Neuroscience Chen Institute Transformative Scholar Award.