How Safe are Bluetooth Baby Monitors and Wearables

April 12, 2021

How safe are Bluetooth baby monitors for your newborn? Our medical device engineer gives you all the details

We use Bluetooth to wirelessly connect our devices together. Follow this advice for the safe use of your Bluetooth baby monitor.

How Does Bluetooth Technology Work?

Bluetooth technology is used to connect multiple devices in a localised area – ie. your phone to your car, headphones, a speaker or your Goldilocks Suit device. There are two types of Bluetooth technology

1. Bluetooth Low Energy (LE)

2. Bluetooth Classic

Bluetooth LE has been designed for situations that require very low amounts of power, consuming as little as 10% of the power required for Bluetooth Classic. Bluetooth LE is what we have used to pair your Goldilocks Suit module with your smartphone. This reduces any risk of overheating or over exposure.

Is the Goldilocks Suit module safe to use around babies?

The Bluetooth (LE) technology we have utilised with the Goldilocks Suit module, in order to send information to your phone, via the Goldilocks Suit mobile app.

If you like nerdy stats, then the figures below will interest you 🙂

The maximum transmit power allowed in the US is 1 milliwatt-second per square centimetre (1mW/cm2)
A typical mobile phone transmits at 0.19mW/cm2
Goldilocks Module using Bluetooth LE transmits at 0.001mW/cm2
Ambient (your body) transmits at 0.0003mW/cm2

Put visually it looks something like this:

Maximum Safe Transmit Power

100%

Your Phone

19%

Goldilocks Module

0.1%

Ambient

0.03%

The Goldilocks Suit monitoring module is over 100x less powerful than your mobile phone. And only 3x more powerful then your body. It is impossible to be totally isolated, we are exposed every time we go close to some one or go out in the sun.

Goldilocks has been designed and made in Australia. We also had our device independently checked by an accredited 3rd party of the National Association of Testing Authorities, Australia (NATA) to ensure the safety of our Goldilocks Suit module.

The Goldilocks module is also ‘off’ most of the time. It is only transmitting data once every 30 seconds for miliseconds. In fact, the Goldilocks module is ‘off’ and not doing anything for 99.997% of the time.

Can my private information be ‘hacked’ over Bluetooth?

Because it uses radio waves, Bluetooth is susceptible to eavesdropping and remote access. It’s very unlikely that this will occur while you are at home, due to the short range required for connection (approximately 100 meters), but while you are out and about, there is a higher possibility.

However we have built additional features into Goldilocks to increase the security of the Bluetooth. For instance to pair your device to Goldilocks, you need to be within 1m of the Bluetooth module. So not just anyone can connect and set up an account.

Hackers are more likely to target the database where all the data is stored, this is because they can do it from the comfort of their own homes. Goldilocks’s data base is HIPAA certified (medical device grade) and the server is located in Australia. We have gone to extra lengths to ensure your data is safe. For further details you can refer to our Privacy Policy.

The simplest way to reduce the risk of bluetooth ‘hackers’ getting to your mobile or personal information, is to keep bluetooth switched off while you are not using it.

However, the eSafety Commissioner website also recommends the steps below for Bluetooth safety:

Keep your devices secure with strong passcodes or passwords and keep a close eye on them, particularly in public places. Read more about how to secure your accounts and devices.
Make sure your Bluetooth device is only paired to devices you are aware of and can control. If you have an in-car Bluetooth navigation system, make sure only your device is paired with the car. Check your fitness tracker and unlink any unknown devices that are not owned by you. Read more about wearables and fitness trackers.
Make sure you change the security settings on your Bluetooth devices to make them as strong as possible — do not leave them on the default settings, particularly the default device name and default password. This makes it hard for other people to find and pair with them.
If security is a worry for you, avoid pairing devices in public places.
If a Bluetooth device is lost or stolen, remove the device from the devices list on the phone, computer or other device that you usually pair it with.
On Apple devices you can use Airdrop to share content such as photos and videos with other Apple devices that are nearby, through Bluetooth or wi-fi. To avoid being sent content by people you don’t know go into the Settings menu for your device, tap General and then Airdrop. You can turn off Airdrop receiving entirely or limit it to Contacts only. It’s strongly recommended you don’t set it to ‘Everyone’. If someone does try to share content with you, and you do not know who they are, decline the invitation.

Summary

Goldilocks uses Low Energy (LE) Bluetooth technology to emit a Radio Frequency (RF) signal to connect your phone to the Goldilocks module.

This signal is 100x less powerful than a typical mobile phone and 1000x less than the legal maximum output for consumer devices in the US.

“Despite extensive research, to date there is no evidence to conclude that exposure to low level electromagnetic fields is harmful to human health.” – World Health Organisation, 2021.

Bluetooth security is an ongoing area for improvement, especially in areas of close proximity to strangers (ie shopping centres).

Keep your device up to date to ensure your mobile provider is giving you the best possible security.

Use strong passcodes.

Use your device settings to only accept trusted device connections and require a passcode to setup new connections.