On Sunday, U.S. Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) asked the Federal Communications Commission to dig into whether Chinese-made smartwatches and other connected health gadgets are quietly piping Americans’ biometric and location data to foreign governments. The senators pointed to everything from fitness bands to continuous glucose monitors and smart hearing aids, arguing that these deeply personal data streams could be exposed under Chinese cybersecurity rules.
As reported by Tampa Free Press, Scott and McCormick sent a formal letter to FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr asking for an immediate briefing and urging the agency to weigh whether certain connected-health products and their transmitters should land on the FCC’s Covered List. They specifically cited firms including Xiaomi and Zepp Health and warned that, in their words, “the most intimate details of their health may be accessible.”
What the FCC’s Covered List Means
Placing a category of equipment on the Covered List effectively blocks newly designated products from receiving FCC equipment authorization and can keep them from being imported, marketed, or subsidized in the United States. The commission has already used that tool to clamp down on certain foreign-made routers and uncrewed aircraft systems, creating a template for sidelining whole classes of radio-enabled gear. Public notices from the FCC outline how the list functions and what it means for equipment approvals.
Security Red Flags Researchers Point To
Researchers and federal cybersecurity officials have supplied concrete examples that bolster the senators’ concerns. A June 2025 review in npj Digital Medicine ranked several Chinese manufacturers among those with the highest cumulative privacy risk. In January 2025, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency warned that the Contec CMS8000 patient monitor contained an embedded backdoor capable of beaconing to external IP addresses or allowing remote modification of patient data, CISA said. Lawmakers cite those findings as proof that the dangers are not just hypothetical.
Scale and The Stakes
The senators told the FCC they are especially worried about seniors and other patients who lean on low-cost devices supplied through government programs or purchased by care providers. The wearables market is large and growing, and IDC projected global shipments could reach about 625.4 million units by 2027. The lawmakers warned that inexpensive devices with Chinese components could slip into clinical or procurement pipelines at scale, magnifying any exposure. As reported by Tampa Free Press, they argued that combination could put sensitive biological data for millions of people at risk.
What Regulators and Industry Could Do Next
If the FCC takes up the senators’ request, it could ask the relevant national-security agencies to decide whether connected health products belong on the Covered List, a statutory move that would cut off new equipment authorizations for any designated categories. The commission has recently used that authority against certain routers and drones, and industry analysts say targeted manufacturers could face conditional approvals, major supply-chain reshuffles, or outright exclusion from U.S. procurement. Industry commentary and legal analysis from Morgan Lewis detail how that process would unfold and the likely ripple effects on equipment authorization and contracting.
What You Can Do Now
For now, consumers and caregivers are not powerless. They can tighten their own defenses by reviewing device privacy policies, dialing back continuous-location and broad sharing settings, and leaning toward manufacturers with stronger privacy reputations. Security teams, meanwhile, recommend keeping firmware patched, isolating medical devices on segmented networks, and asking providers which brands are being purchased for care programs. In some cases, CISA has advised pulling vulnerable monitors off operational networks until fixes are in place, and CISA guidance lays out the most immediate operational steps for hospitals and clinics.
Legal and Policy Implications
Treating connected health gear as a national-security concern would reshape how hospitals, vendors, and government programs buy and certify radio-enabled medical devices, potentially forcing rapid changes in sourcing and compliance. Companies could seek exemptions or conditional approvals, but those paths run through interagency national-security reviews and statutory rules, so any fixes are likely to involve both policy work and procurement overhauls. Analysts say the fight sits at the crossroads of health privacy, supply-chain security, and national-security politics, and both industry and government are watching closely for the FCC’s next move.
The FCC was asked to respond and set a briefing for the Senate Special Committee on Aging by July 15, 2026. Whether the commission opens a full-blown inquiry or opts for narrower reviews of specific device categories will dictate how quickly any new rules hit the market. For now, the senators’ letter plants connected health products firmly in the national-security debate and signals that tougher scrutiny is likely on the way.
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