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The Fitness Watch Spying Syndrome

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At the recent computer show I was checking-out fitness-tracking devices. A purported wonderful new health-oriented wearables trend? So many watch-tech choices with amazing fashions. Primary brands on display: Fitbit, Garmin, Withings, Suunto, Apple Watch Series and Taiyoko. Behind the folding table a beautiful oriental woman with painted cerise lips and her makeup so overdone for the occasion. When she bends across the table, like sharing verboten knowledge, I breathed in her scent…'L'Air Du Temps' a scent I know so well from bygone days. She was sporting a large blue name plate 'Nina Li.'

To my surprise she was quick to point out that many fitness trackers today may actually be spying on you? Besides the devices are also tracking people's whereabouts Nina hushed into my waiting ears. Per Nina, a user of a Fitbit, for example, could be happily walking around here at the show clueless to the fact that their every move is being recorded by outside parties scanning their unique Bluetooth address. My take away: "So it's not just me who cares how many steps I take, how many floors I climb, monitoring my sleep, my heart-rate, caloric consumption, etc."

Nina went on smiling at me and noted that a wide range of these fitness manufacturers are interested in getting their hands on this data about your body and that these companies brokering such fitness data to insurance companies, to authorities, a host of national healthcare providers, food and nutrition companies with deep pockets, etc. I ask Nina if there are any vanilla devices that simply "do not track?" Perhaps just do the basics? Nina said that most devices have one thing or another that violate ones privacy and that there are simply no easy answers and thus could not recommend a single fitness device to squelch my privacy and buying hesitancy.

FitBit and Garmin are the worst offenders and Apple watches being third, not even their proffered 'Privacy Settings' can be trusted and which are controlled through the privacy options on your cell-phone. "What kind of smartphone do you have, Nina then added?" Confused and uncertain and now my trusty smartphone access is being roped-into the fitness equation as well.

I did not buy from Nina, even though I had a hard time in keeping my eyes away from her fluttering eyes and her unrelenting smile. Meanwhile I read that the fitness wearable industry is booming and their total market valuation in 2021 is estimated to exceed $50 billion. So until further notice I will for now continue the old fashion way and have my body tell me what is best for me! Meanwhile I will however keep an eye out for Nina and keep on wondering!
 
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Your real name is Tom Clancy right?
 
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aside from the dramatics, its true, data collection is by any means necessary, to turn a normal profit into a windfall.
 
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I made a joke to my colleague who bought the first ever Fitbit watch that his wife would be wondering why he start running every night LOL
I pretty much predicted the future there ;).
 
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I made a joke to my colleague who bought the first ever Fitbit watch that his wife would be wondering why he start running every night LOL
I pretty much predicted the future there ;).
Similar tale here:
 
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I like old school digital watches. Casio still makes great digital watches. Without those alarms and timers, I would truly be sunk. They track everything I need. No biometrics... maybe some of the highest end ones dip into smarter things. But come to think of it, my simple square G-Shock gets its time over bluetooth to my phone... :laugh:

But nah, it wouldn't surprise me to find out that highly valuable data was being bought and sold in yet another place. I don't wanna be apathetic about it, but of course if it can track you, someone will use it to track you. Maybe they aren't 'looking for' you per se - they don't want anything to do with you (not specifically,) but still.

Honestly, I could never have one of those things anyway. The hypochondria, you see. I don't really need to be knowing what my pulse is all of the time. I half thought this was going to be about people becoming neurotic from peeping their fitness stats too intensely due to wearing those damned things and plugging into the app - fantasy footballing their health and stuff. I mean... to me, that already feels like a thing that happens, and I just made it up!

Maybe it's good to have a prod like that. Maybe it gets some people moving and thinking. But is it worth it? I go with a pretty basic triangle for health. There is physical, mental/emotional, and ambiance/spiritual (basically things you keep and especially place around you, like your relationships, but could even be just your general environment.) The way this all stacks up, you have to keep them all up separately in order to get them working to boost each other. If you invest too heavily into one, but in doing so neglect another, your investment leaks out as the whole bar sinks. It's a matter of averages. The max attainable level for any one is determined in fair parts by all sides.

What I'm trying to say is, the tech toy making any waking moment another brief chapter in a long-running fitness game isn't doing my mental health any favors, and thus strikes me as a poor tool for pursuing fitness. For me, anyway. People aren't wired to crunch themselves down to numbers to that degree. I think we have an easy time putting ourselves there, and a VERY hard time seeing what it does to us until by chance it lets go or we simply realize and intuitively sunset it. If you can keep it as a little side tool, it's a killer side tool. But if not, I think you may get physically healthier for a while, but at some point that's going to burn you out as you lose sight of the value and gain a dopamine tolerance. Endogenous workout high still comes, of course. I'm still not cozying up to the associations building. I see the side that reinforces some beneficial habits, but also so many opportunities for rabbit-hole scenarios. I kind of just wonder to myself why we must gamify every intimate aspect of our selves.

Ultimately I just don't like the idea of picking up too many things that borrow from one area of your health to improve another. Easy way to stay in one place, gaining and losing in different areas at different times. I wouldn't call it the norm, but a lot of people are susceptible to that and don't even realize that it's pretty much baked into their temperaments, like a guaranteed behavioral patter once seen. That tendency to latch onto these loops is definitely a thing at this point. You don't need to be 'crazy' to fall in a bad way with it. Just a matter of who and what. I'm wise to it because I'm diagnosed... I'm legitimately crazy and am thus mindful of general brain-snares, little tendrils that try to grab on and slow your roll little by little. These watches get my radar buzzin a little bit.

It's just intuition. I can't explain it. Like... when it comes to health and fitness, if you find this one thing that seems to just catalyze everything for you... like to an almost impossible degree, then it's 99% too good to be true and will not last. Just my experience, and stuff from talking to people when I went to gyms. It could be anything. A diet, a technique/method, a tool, a machine, habit, whatever. Many things can make a big difference. But there's no easy way. Just little pushes. I think it's easy to get hung up on the pushes... confuse them for the chase itself. That's how aids like that strike me. For some people, they just make sense. But for others, I can see it doing more to mess with their heads than necessarily making for better health habits. Too easy to base all of those habits around the watch and the app. Which is to say it slowly becomes increasingly more about the watch and the app, and at the same time less about your health in actuality. You have to then ask yourself how you find your habits when it comes to those objects. It becomes another thing to stay on top of. Maybe that's my ADHD, presuming it to be a distraction out of a bias towards being easily distracted.

The one time I've been tempted was with the fancy GPS features. To have a display on your wrist plotting a detailed breadcrumb map in realtime while hiking sounds great. Seriously handy for poorly maintained trails... if they're maintained places. And maybe one of those times, I want to be found! Muy espensivo, though! That's a little beyond a basic fitness watch.

Side note, gotta say it. Something about these things just makes them all look UNSIGHTLY to me. Maybe it's because I like watches. So many nice-looking automatic watches out there these days. Nice digital and quartz ones, too. Put any one of those next to a fitness watch, and the fitness watch just looks so sad and cheap. They're really trendy looking. So you buy it and for a while it's neat to you, and then next year you can't stand looking at it anymore. That's what it is. Maybe this is smartphone conditioning - they look disposable to me. Much more disposable than the cheapest good normal watch..
 
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Everything connected to the internet is colleting data and sending it somewhere.
 
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Everything connected to the internet is colleting data and sending it somewhere.
Garmin got hacked some time ago but I haven't been blackmailed for them not to publishing my poor training results :D
 
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Everything connected to the internet is colleting data and sending it somewhere.
And most of the time the user is giving it willingly.

People don't seem to get that blabbing on social media and every device within reach constantly is the same as shouting loudly in a resteraunt and being surprised when people hear you.

It's not spies, it's you.
 
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I like old school digital watches.
Digital watches are "old school"? :roll:

Ummm, do you know what this is?



Or better yet, what it is telling us?

How about this?



Kids! :rolleyes:
 

bug

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@Tom Sunday Don't worry, nobody cares about you or me as individuals. But software for these devices is built upon data analysis. And there needs to be data to be analyzed.
As for these data making their way to 3rd parties, I can see that happening in China, but in the civilized world, that's illegal in the absence of user's consent.

If I have beef with these devices is they don't offer anything useful - have you ever tried monitoring your sleep using watches from different makers? That and my kinetic watch laughs at devices needing daily charging.
 
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Wise choice OP.
What i would be most upset about if i had been suckered into buying one is they are up to 40% inaccurate. They fudge their results to maintain that warm fuzzy feeling people require in order to continue using them.
They are nothing more than toys for adults. It amazes me that so many people take them so friggin seriously its hilarious.
 
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I was recently gifted a cheap ass one by my mother since I got her a proper blood pressure tester, one-button dreamy thing she can not fff f up(hopefully).

I didn't take to it, kin thing told the wrong time and had no way to correct it I jest not.

then it died after 6 hours,, biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin.
 
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Digital watches are "old school"? :roll:

Ummm, do you know what this is?



Or better yet, what it is telling us?

How about this?



Kids! :rolleyes:
Man... really? Did you pay attention to anything I said or just felt like glossing over it all to put "the kids" in their place? What I say isnt important to you, because I called a 50 year old digital watch oldschool in a time when people are rocking watches packed with sensors, oleds, and little cpu packages. I dont make the rules, just the passing of time, and the ever pacing history of horology. Digital watches are old tech. Beyond ubiquity for decades.
 
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Thank you all for the informative and shared views on the "wearable" syndrome." A spying device essentially attached to ones body 24/7 and all for your convenience and protection? Fully realizing that this entire information gathering for profit is here to stay, it was just upsetting that wherever I look or go these days that ones privacy is further being eroded and or challenged and with almost any new tech products being introduced. At the next computer show I will be looking to purchase a new "WIFI Router" knowing already that most router manufacturers these days are getting more and more into trying collecting your website activities and more. Why allow your ISP to get all of the goodies? I now have 6 WIFI required devices connected to my 5-year old router and those very possibly now ripe for even more picking. Hopefully I will see Nina again for another earful and another whiff of her L'Air Du Temps'....and she may even has a 'non-spying' router deal for me? Perhaps with 10% off when paying cash?
 
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Wise choice OP.
What i would be most upset about if i had been suckered into buying one is they are up to 40% inaccurate. They fudge their results to maintain that warm fuzzy feeling people require in order to continue using them.
They are nothing more than toys for adults. It amazes me that so many people take them so friggin seriously its hilarious.
That's the big clincher.

Some haven't wised up yet but, these devices... IoT... smart this/that... even your main internet platforms... they're designed to make you a little bit crazy. I'm not even being cute. In some regards this is absolutely true. They want for you to be obsessesed. This stuff is MADE for you to latch onto hard and keep you there. Interact with them more, spend more and more time, more and more money... and then they profit off of profiting off of you with the resulting data. It's a hyper-capitalist dreamscape.
I was recently gifted a cheap ass one by my mother since I got her a proper blood pressure tester, one-button dreamy thing she can not fff f up(hopefully).

I didn't take to it, kin thing told the wrong time and had no way to correct it I jest not.

then it died after 6 hours,, biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin.
LMAO, that's the REAL problem with smartwatches as a whole. For them to do anything cool, they have to be unable to be worn all day. What good is a watch that dies 3 times a day if you don't trickle it?

Still swear by the G-Shock for actual time keeping. Some can pull the time right from your phone - just straight satellite time... and of course you can change it manually. Barring that, if there's an atomic clock broadcasting in the area, it'll grab that time every day, no bluetooth needed. Couldn't be more accurate. It's not off by more than a half second on any given day (assuming it does the specced +/-15s/mo..) All of the technology to do this has been around for at least twice as long as me. Longer in the case of the quartz oscillator circuit that keeps it ticking the other 23:59:59 of the day. A watch that never needs setting, can be safely thrown off of a skyscraper, waterproof to 200m, born in the 80s. Doesn't need much for battery either. Solar keeps it topped off continuously, until around 10 years pass and the battery is no good.

Work some medical/biometric sensors into that, I might wear it sometimes. Till then I keep the one that just tells the time, all of the time. I think that's a rarity these days, people telling time. :laugh:

Thank you all for the informative and shared views on the "wearable" syndrome." A spying device essentially attached to ones body 24/7 and all for your convenience and protection? Fully realizing that this entire information gathering for profit is here to stay, it was just upsetting that wherever I look or go these days that ones privacy is further being eroded and or challenged and with almost any new tech products being introduced. At the next computer show I will be looking to purchase a new "WIFI Router" knowing already that most router manufacturers these days are getting more and more into trying collecting your website activities and more. Why allow your ISP to get all of the goodies? I now have 6 WIFI required devices connected to my 5-year old router and those very possibly now ripe for even more picking. Hopefully I will see Nina again for another earful and another whiff of her L'Air Du Temps'....and she may even has a 'non-spying' router deal for me? Perhaps with 10% off when paying cash?
It's really getting tougher and tougher. You basically submit to a fair degree of it just by using a PC or a cell phone. They won't always sneak it past you, either. You'll have to consent to get into stuff. Personally, I think we need to look at what circumstances we consider this legally binding under, as things have changed with regards to what the agreement means, but the way they're treated hasn't. Certain types of monitoring just shouldn't be conditions of use, regardless of user consent.
 
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Somewhat related: WIN 11 will be making webcam mandatory after 1/1/23. Just to make sure they can absolutely track all of your movements at all times. The only main reason it can be needed is for facial recognition. With the added "Must Sign Into your MS Account" they now have your account and a handy way to track your face all the time too. Wishful thinkling: Perhaps software will be available in the future that if loaded into Windows or onto any PC will block the feedback of my stolen information for profit by others and return to me a sense of privacy. Until then a roll of tape will have to do into plugging and obstructing all the holes and cameras.
 

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Somewhat related: WIN 11 will be making webcam mandatory after 1/1/23.
I doubt that very much. Desktops don't usually have a webcam.
 
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I doubt that very much. Desktops don't usually have a webcam.
Yes of course on desktops a camera has always been an "optional" item but some form of network connection is not. Windows 10 users to date have delighted in pulling their LAN cable so they can have a user documents folder that is their name rather than their Microsoft Account email address and all the privacy problems that entails. From Windows 11 this idea of a local account you can then upgrade to a full one appears to be being removed, leaving you with the option of signing in to your MS account and having your documents under mynamehere@somewhere.net, or not getting past the setup screen. At least that is from what I know and read.
 
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Yes of course on desktops a camera has always been an "optional" item but some form of network connection is not. Windows 10 users to date have delighted in pulling their LAN cable so they can have a user documents folder that is their name rather than their Microsoft Account email address and all the privacy problems that entails. From Windows 11 this idea of a local account you can then upgrade to a full one appears to be being removed, leaving you with the option of signing in to your MS account and having your documents under mynamehere@somewhere.net, or not getting past the setup screen. At least that is from what I know and read.
You can still do Windows 11 local accounts in Pro if you read their documentation.

You also can in 10 pro. Just click "limited Setup"

I'm calling bs on the webcam requirement unless you have a real source.

At least that is from what I know and read.
Your sources are being misleading.
 
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You can still do Windows 11 local accounts in Pro if you read their documentation.

You also can in 10 pro. Just click "limited Setup"

I'm calling bs on the webcam requirement unless you have a real source.


Your sources are being misleading.
Please have a peek...
 
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I don't know about you guys, but I can monitor my sleep and calorie intake just fine - if I'm hungry, it means I need more food. If I'm tired, it means I need more sleep. Why would I need a watch to tell me this? :laugh:
 
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Please have a peek...
Did you read it? It literally says all devices EXCEPT desktop pcs.

It's likely for Windows Hello facial recognition login. That has it's own issues, but this paranoia level is quite insane, and I'm a bigtime privacy advocate.
 
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Did you read it? It literally says all devices EXCEPT desktop pcs.....and I'm a bigtime privacy advocate.
Well..for me whether desktops or laptops it was just another nail into the coffin of 'privacy for profit' with absolutely no regard towards the masses. Actually for me a very blatant disregard or slap in the face and who knows what is next to come or will be MS mandated strictly for our benefit? And Windows 11 is purported to be your new friend, provide better security and is all for your convenience? When is enough...enough? But I am just a simple man on the street so what do I know?
 
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