The bathroom is arguably the last bastion of privacy, but soon a new high-tech lavatory could be tracking your every movement.

Researchers at the European Space Agency (ESA) and MIT have teamed up with sanitation specialists to create the ‘FitLoo’ which screens human waste for early signs of disease.

Data gathered by the sensors in the toilet bowl could be beamed to the users mobile phone so they can see how their health is changing or even directly to the GP so they could keep a remote eye on patients.

“The toilet offers an incredible opportunity for people to gain control of their health,” said Michael Lindenmayer, digital health and smart sanitation lead at the Toilet Board Coalition, which represents many leading toilet manufacturers.

“At the moment is people only go to the doctor when they are sick. We do not listen to our bodies enough, but the toilet is listening every time we use it.

“There is a huge amount of health information that is simply flushed into the sewers every time we go.”

The project is based on automated sample testing technology already used by astronauts to monitor health in space. For example, the International Space Station (ISS) has been trialling a device called the Urine Monitoring System which tests small quantity of fluid when astronauts urinate.