A new app uses crowdsourcing to notify credit card users of suspicious charges and also helps trace data breaches to their source, according to a Quartz report.
Thousands of data breaches occur in the healthcare industry each year, and that number is on the rise, with a 138 percent increase in the number of healthcare data breaches since 2012. Because of the notification and reporting rules in place, many times affected patients are not aware their information has been compromised until months or even years after a breach occurs.
The new app, called BillGuard, provides users with a list of all of their credit card transactions each day. The app asks users to confirm whether each charge is fraudulent or legitimate. If a user identifies a charge as fraudulent, it is combined with all of the other charges BillGuard customers have marked as fraudulent. The app then uses an algorithm to determine where the data breach originated based on all of the information the app's users have reported, according to the report.
Once BillGuard identifies the business responsible for the breach, the app sends out a message to all of its users who have used their cards at the company to notify them of the breach. "Our number one goal is to bring people real-time transparency," said Yaron Samid, CEO of BillGuard, in the report.
The app can be downloaded for free on iPhone and Android. BillGuard has plans to begin charging businesses to review their breach record from the information gained from app users, according to the report.
More Articles on Healthcare Apps:
Jersey City Medical Center Saves $2M By Using Mobile App
Startup Develops App That Helps Physicians Fill Last-Minute Appointments
How to Further Integrate Patient-Facing Apps in Healthcare (and the Top-Rated Apps)