Fair Warning

How old are you? No…how old are you REALLY?

You may have seen the ads on various websites, inviting you to take the RealAge survey. Or you might have caught Dr. Mehmet Oz promoting RealAge on one of his many Oprah appearances. It’s an intriguing concept: Answer a few questions about your health, diet, and other habits, and RealAge calculates your “real age.”

What RealAge actually does is calculate how close you might be to your meeting with the Grim Reaper.

For instance, you’ll be asked how many miles you travel by car each year. If you travel 500 miles your RealAge will skew younger, but if you travel 100,000 miles (ten times the U.S. national average), your real age will skew much older.

Of course, your yearly miles-spent-on-the-highway has nothing to do with your age, and everything to do with your risk of a fatal accident. But I’m sure it would be hard to get more than 25 million people to flock to an online survey called DeathRisk.

But all those millions HAVE flocked to RealAge where they reveal how many hours they sleep each night, fruit and vegetable intake, exercise habits, diagnosed illnesses, and even the quality of their sex lives.

Millions have disclosed this intimate information without the slightest idea of what happens next, unless they VERY carefully read the Terms of Use.

They know where you live

After the RealAge computer crunches your info, you’re not only given the calculation of your numerical proximity to death, but you’re also given personalized “Grow Younger” strategies. So if you don’t exercise daily, RealAge will gently prod you to exercise. And if you eat just one serving of vegetables each day, RealAge will suggest you up your veggie intake.

And all of this is free.

So how do they make any money? According to a New York Times report, those who accept an invitation to become a RealAge member (again, free of charge) are in effect releasing control of their information.

And that’s when RealAge partners such as Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline and other drug companies go to work, mining the information and then – through RealAge e-mails – contacting individuals with advice about addressing specific health matters.

Throughout this process, you never give your name, but that doesn’t matter – they have your e-mail address, and on the Internet, that’s where you live. And without your knowledge, your address gets flagged for drug company use: “Candidate for statin drug.” Or: “Menopausal type 2 diabetic who doesn’t get enough sleep and drives 12,000 miles per year.”

Your real age? That’s a cute gimmick.

Supplying “Grow Younger” strategies? I already know I need to exercise more.

Making you an easy target for drug companies? That’s the reality of RealAge.

Sources:
“Online Age Quiz Is a Window for Drug Makers” Stephanie Clifford, New York Times, 3/26/09, nytimes.com