Where do I put my bits?

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An application developer recently asked how much of a HealthVault-compatible application and its data are hosted on Microsoft servers versus servers that the developer maintains.  Here is an answer:

  • The application resides on a server that you maintain
  • Consumer health data resides on a HealthVault server.  Your app server can read from and write to this server at run-time (using the HealthVault web service) as long as the user has authorized this access.
  • If your application also maintains non-health-related user data, you would store that data on your own server. 
  • You may copy consumer health data onto your own server (provided your app has been authorized to read this data) but you are not permitted to transfer that data onward without explicit opt-in consent from the user.  This still applies if you aggregate and anonymize the data.  HealthVault is very serious about protecting the user's privacy.

Please use the comments below or the forum if you have questions.