By Grant Roshkoff | October 30, 2026
Technology is changing the way college athletes train, compete, and recover. Universities are now requiring athletes to use wearable devices to monitor heart rates, sleep patterns, movement, physical exertion, and injury risks. This information does help coaches and medical professionals develop individualized training programs and potentially prevent injuries, however, wearable technologies and the biometric information they collect can reveal sensitive details about an athlete's health, raising questions about who controls the information and how it may be shared. Existing federal and state privacy laws do not fully resolve these concerns.
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is the main federal law protecting student-athlete information. FERPA protects student education records. This includes certain student health records, according to joint guidance from the Departments of Health and Human Services and Education. However, biometric information collected through wearable devices is not automatically protected. Determining if biometric information is considered an education record depends on who owns the record and if it meets FERPA’s requirements. Under FERPA, college students generally have the right to review their education records, and universities must obtain their written consent before disclosing protected information unless a legal exception applies. Such exceptions may allow coaches and athletic staff to access records when they have a legitimate educational interest. Importantly, FERPA regulates access to and disclosure of protected records, not whether universities can require athletes to provide biometric information in the first place.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a federal health information protection law but it provides only limited protections in the context of student-athlete biometric data collection. HIPAA does not apply to athletic departments collecting performance information. So, student health records covered by FERPA are typically excluded from HIPAA’s privacy requirements. Some states also regulate biometric data, but their laws vary and may not cover the performance measurements universities are collecting. Existing federal and state privacy laws do not do enough to address how universities collect and use student-athlete performance data.
In March 2026, the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports released guidance for the responsible use of performance technologies. The NCAA’s recommendations encourage universities to consider privacy, informed consent, data security, and student-athlete well-being when implementing monitoring technology. It also recommends that universities establish written plans explaining how performance information will be collected, managed, and protected.
The first recommendation encourages universities to involve student-athletes, coaches, medical professionals, and other staff in developing written policies. The second recommendation emphasizes educating athletes and athletic staff about data privacy, security, and informed consent. The third recommendation encourages schools to establish who owns the data, where and how it is stored, who has authority to access it, and how it may be used. The guidance also addresses universities’ rights to collect and use athlete data when an athlete transfers to another school. These recommendations recognize that protecting athlete information requires more than just securing the data. Universities must also establish clear rules about who controls it and how decisions about its use are made.
While these recommendations represent progress, they are not comprehensive mandatory privacy rules. Universities have discretion over their own policies, which means student-athletes at different schools receive different levels of privacy protection. The NCAA recommendations, while potentially helpful, do not establish even universal minimum privacy standards for biometric data. Without stronger requirements from the NCAA or federal regulations, technological innovation in the biometric data collection space will advance much quicker than the protections available to student-athletes.
Another concern is whether student-athletes can really consent to biometric monitoring. For example, all of the coaches at a university could ask all of their athletes to wear a monitoring device during practice. The participation is technically voluntary, but athletes might worry that refusing could affect their playing time or their relationship with their coaches. Because college athletes depend on coaches for opportunities, development, and sometimes scholarships, they may feel pressured to accept monitoring even if they are uncomfortable sharing personal information. This raises an important question: can consent truly be voluntary when athletes feel they have little choice?
Biometric information collected from a wearable device intended to protect an athlete’s health could potentially be used for other purposes such as evaluating future athletic performance or commercial research. Athletes should understand the potential uses before agreeing to monitoring. The NCAA should consider requiring universities to obtain informed consent for different uses of biometric information and explain whether refusing monitoring could impact participation.
Performance technology offers valuable opportunities to improve training, recovery, and athlete health. However, these benefits should not come at the expense of personal privacy. The NCAA's guidance is an important first step, but stronger and more consistent protections are needed to give student-athletes control over how their personal information is collected, accessed, and shared.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services & U.S. Department of Education Joint Guidance on the Application of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) And the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) To Student Health Records. Updated December 2019. https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/special-topics/ferpa-hipaa/index.html
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Performance Technologies Guidelines. Accessed October 2025. https://www.ncaa.org/what-we-do/health-safety-and-performance/performance-technologies-guidelines/
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Performance Technologies Recommendations: Responsible use in Collegiate Athletics. Updated March 2026. https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/ssi/performance/SSI_PerformanceTechRecommendations.pdf
