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Apple, did ANYONE ask for that ? More sensors to measure us. Privacy invasion. Only used Apple in the past and this is a thing of the past.
You have to understand that humanity is going two ways now

One way is the machine-augmented human

The other way is the natural/organic human

Ironically the natural/organic human is the higher technology - "science" (a word misused these days for propaganda, but which also still refers to real actual science) cannot create life, only life can create life, which is laymans proof that oh, the body can do some stuff we have no idea how it works and are not even remotely close to understanding how it works.

We often think we know how the body works - snake oil salesmen particularly are interested in promoting this world view so they can sell you things - but in actuality we have no clue. We know about as much about how our body operates as an ant knows about how the space shuttle operates.

Apple is squarely with the machine augmented human idea, so expect more "health" tech from them

I had an Apple watch measuring my heart rate ... then I had a bunch of useless data... what do I do with that? I know how I feel; I know if I am healthy; I know when I need to rest; I know how to keep myself healthy (eat healthy food and moderate exercise, most importantly meditate since most disease comes from stress and wrong ideas about health - it's not rocket science).

My body is not just measuring my heart rate, it knows about 1 billion more data points than that watch. Once the Apple watch has 1 billion data points, and the AI to go with it to interpret those data points - then it can be useful to me.

Right now it has like 10 data points, so it's 8 orders of magnitudes away from becoming useful.
 
Apple has no access to the health data.
Just wait until iOS 17 when they suddenly do

I sometimes wonder how naive and gullible people are....

Seriously! People need to get a grip here, I would have fully agreed with you up until last week

I would have said

Apple makes money with hardware, they love privacy and they found a way to turn that into business success. Also The entire DNA of Apple is structured around this core value.

Since last week, that statement holds no truth any longer. Now what we can see is that Apple is introducing more control mechanisms into its platforms - especially in 2020... Apple respects your privacy - but wait... there's a pandemic! Lives come first! Let's remove the privacy stuff right now.

Do you think people would agree, given enough TV brainwashing? Sure they would. Just like they've agreed to everything else.

Apple would be celebrated for closely monitoring and centrally processing your health, and notifying the relevant authorities if anything is off.

Read "brave new world" if you don't think this is coming / already here.
 
While the paper doesn't name AirPods as such

From the research paper:

All data was recorded using microphone-enabled, near- range headphones, specifically Apple’s AirPods. These particular wearables were selected because they are owned by millions and utilized in a wide array of contexts, from speaking on the phone to listening to music during exercise.
 
I hope Apple sells some kind of bare-bone AirPods SE when all these health features are introduced to the mainstream AirPods, just like the Apple Watch SE. Some people don't want to pay for the extra features like ECG and blood oxygen measurement.
 
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