Apple’s CareKit Adds End-To-End Encryption With Integration of Tresorit’s ZeroKit

Apple’s CareKit, designed to allow patients to share health data from an app on their iPhone with the physicians treating them, is now integrated with security firm Tresorit’s ZeroKit, which provides end-to-end encryption of users’ account credentials and their health data to the cloud.

According to a press release on Apple’s CareKit blog, Tresorit’s ZeroKit security technology includes end-to-end user authentication for both patients and healthcare workers, encryption of health data, and “zero knowledge” sharing of health data, which means that any data shared through the service cannot be seen by anything else during transfer.

ZeroKit integrates with CareKit to provide user authentication to protect user passwords from breaches as well as helping application developers store patients’ Protected Health Information (PHI) in the cloud with secure, end-to-end encryption. This allows the application to comply with requirements needed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

As Apple explains:

Starting today, CareKit developers can use ZeroKit in their apps. ZeroKit complements CareKit: it’s a ‘Zero Knowledge’ User Authentication service and Encryption SDK that enables developers to protect PHI (Protected Health Information) with the best available methods in the cloud. Using ZeroKit, CareKit developers can reach HIPAA compliance easier which attracts patients and healthcare providers who are looking for the most secure solutions.

The company’s cofounder and chief executive Istvan Lam stated, “Our mission is to help people stay secure and protect their privacy. With ZeroKit, our aim is to make our core end-to-end encryption technology available for all developers and enable them to build secure digital health tools.”

“Secure authentication goes hand-in-hand with end-to-end encryption of data: without that, end-to-end encryption is practically useless,” Lam added. “ZeroKit is an out-of-the-box solution for this.”

CareKit was announced last spring as an extension of Apple’s ResearchKit. While ResearchKit was originally intended to aid in the creation of applications that would allow medical professionals to effectively gather and analyze health-related data from participants, CareKit was designed with individuals in mind, allowing them to better manage their own conditions.