According to a Reuters exclusive, two people, both familiar with the FTC's thinking, said Apple representatives have met on multiple occasions with agency officials in recent months, to stress that it will not sell its users' health data to third-party entities such as marketers or allow third-party developers to do so.

Apple said it works closely with regulators around the world, including the FTC, to describe built-in data protections for its services. "We've been very encouraged by their support," Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller told Reuters.

Apple developed its new HealthKit platform, which manages data from mobile health apps, to give consumers control over how their information is used and shared. "We designed HealthKit with privacy in mind," said Muller.

There are no indications that the FTC intends to launch a formal investigation or inquiry into the matter, but the dialogue underscores the agency's interest in how the increasing wealth of consumer-generated health and fitness data will be safeguarded.

Some experts say Apple is setting a strong precedent for health data privacy. Apple requires that users must give consent before app developers are granted access to their health information, and that data logged by its smartwatch is encrypted on the device.

In late August, Apple tightened its privacy rules to ensure that personal data collected through HealthKit would not be used by developers for the purposes of advertising or other data-mining purposes. It also said apps that access HealthKit are required to have a privacy policy, although it remains to be seen how Apple will enforce this rule.

FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez praised Apple for taking a step critical to maintain consumers' trust. Read the full Reuters report here.

Earlier this year Apple published "A message from Tim Cook about Apple’s commitment to your privacy."

In that public statement Apple's CEO Tim Cook noted that "Our business model is very straightforward: We sell great products. We don’t build a profile based on your email content or web browsing habits to sell to advertisers. We don’t 'monetize' the information you store on your iPhone or in iCloud. And we don’t read your email or your messages to get information to market to you. Our software and services are designed to make our devices better. Plain and simple."

Cook specifically added that "It doesn’t get data from Health and HomeKit, Maps, Siri, iMessage, your call history, or any iCloud service like Contacts or Mail, and you can always just opt out altogether."

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