Neurotechnology wearables enter consumer market via EEG headphones

Neurotechnology is entering the consumer market through wearable devices such as headphones equipped with electroencephalography (EEG) sensors. Companies like Neurable are marketing headphones designed to track fatigue and manage burnout, while NextSense offers Smartbuds that utilize brain signals to analyze sleep patterns.

While these devices cannot literally read a person's thoughts, they can infer mental and physical states. Data collected can include attention levels, fatigue, emotional responses, and cognitive characteristics. This capability raises significant privacy concerns, as the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) warns that neurodata, when combined with artificial intelligence, can be used to reveal sensitive emotional and cognitive information.