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Abbott FreeStyle Libre

Abbott Laboratories · Medical Wearable / CGM

Staff Reviewed · 2026-09-26 — a person at DeSpy reviewed this rating.

3.9Surveillance
Index
Policy — what its policy permitsC
Evidence — what research provesD

The FreeStyle Libre is a continuous glucose sensor whose readings are captured by the FreeStyle LibreLink phone app and uploaded to Abbott's LibreView cloud. It records your glucose history, and reports sent through the share function carry your first and last name and other health details to clinicians or connections via LibreLinkUp. Abbott integrates Libre data with electronic health-record systems and states it does not sell or license personal data except in a business transfer or joint-marketing program.

Why this rating

Deductions: continuous glucose monitoring is sensitive health data (-15); retention/processing language is vague (-7); a business-transfer clause means the account data could move in an acquisition (-5). Abbott's stated position that it does not routinely sell or license personal information — a stricter default than most consumer wearables — and TLS encryption keep the score comparatively high.

What it is

Manufacturer
Abbott Laboratories
Category
Medical Wearable / CGM
Model years
2017-present
Market status
Current
Companion app
FreeStyle LibreLink

The evidence 1

Independent research, regulatory action, lawsuits and journalism about how this device handles personal data — the "what actually happens" axis. Each links to its source.

  1. S3Abbott Issues Safety Notification for FreeStyle Libre Family Readers in the US
    Regulatory action · U.S. Food and Drug Administration · 2023

    An FDA-posted Abbott safety notification concerning FreeStyle Libre reader hardware.

    Why it matters here: Device-safety notification, not a data-privacy incident; included because no independent review of the app/LibreView privacy behavior exists — the privacy axis here is effectively unstudied.

Are you the maker? Respond to this finding

Free. There is no paid or faster path, and nothing about a rating is for sale. Prove you control your company's domain with one DNS record; a person then reads your statement beside our finding and decides whether to publish it.

An email is encrypted at rest and opened only to answer you; it is erased 30 days after we resolve this (or 180 days if still open), and you can erase it sooner. Unproven filings are deleted after 14 days.

Think something here is wrong?

Evidence and research improve when people push back. Tell us what to re-check — a misattributed domain, an outdated classification, a claim about your own app — and a human will review it. Responses can take up to 30 days.

If you leave an email it is encrypted at rest and opened only to answer you — never shared, never used for anything else. It is erased 30 days after we resolve this (or 180 days if it is still open) without you asking, and you can erase it sooner at any time; either way your correction stays, anonymously. Leave it blank and your request is fully anonymous from the start (we store no IP address either way).

Descriptive, cited, not legal advice; ratings are versioned and corrections create a new version. Data from the IoT Info Grabber DB research project, CC BY-SA 4.0.

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