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I have been worried about health-related data that can be exfiltrated by smart devices such as scales, watches (...) so I simply refuse to use any app that's no
by csdvrx 5y ago
I have been worried about health-related data that can be exfiltrated by smart devices such as scales, watches (...) so I simply refuse to use any app that's not opensource.
There is a solution for some (ex: my Xiaomi bluetooth scale) but not others.
However, should I install even one such app, I do not trust it will avoid listening to the BLE broadcast of data coming from other devices, and send it home.
Recently, this was a problem on the Wyze Watch which includes among other things a period tracker. I ended up replacing it by a Garmin eSports Watch: while the Wyze is a wonderful device (oh boy do I miss the puse oxymeter for O2 saturation...), it requires an app on the phone: if you uninstall it, the Wyze will work for a while... until it accumulates too much data.
After that, it presents various symptoms (ex: unable to pair) that end up with the touchscreen not working after a few month.
The Garmin can apparently be run autonomously and doesn't seem to have this problem (so far!) that seems to be cause by a lack of rollover/delete.
If it works as it should, with no app, I will replace it after a few months by a more advanced model like the Forerunner 945 that includes a pulse oximeter.
If it can't delete data on its own (without any phone pairing), I will look for another device that can work without a phone.
In any case, I will not let my health-related data be exfiltrated, even for something as innocent as a bluetooth toothbrush.
This article seems to support my almost luddite approach!
- tata71 5y agoBetween this, and Peloton and eBay doing portscans of your network, anyone who made fun of people for tech paranoia should be feeling pretty ashamed of themselves right about now for what we've allowed to become commonplace, while simultaneously acknowledging it's only enabled by society ghosting its responsibility to learn tech.
- csdvrx 5y agoI can't remember exactly which smart device it was, but I think it was my Wyze Watch that asked for wayyyyyy too much information during setup. Like, dear watch, how's my sex, birthday, size and weight gonna help you do your job? I got you to 1) show the time 2) have alarms that I can set without using the phone, like in bed 3) monitor my sleep 4) check my heartrate and saturation when I exercise. There's literally 0 reason to have my birthday, so I went by january 1st :) But it shouldn't even have been asked in the 1st place. > what we've allowed to become commonplace We should not allow it anymore. A smart device that insist on having an app on a phone to be usable won't get my $$$.
- toper-centage 5y agoAge, sex, size and weight are needed to accurately count calories. Now, whether you should sacrifice your private data for some slight extra accuracy in counting calories, thst another story.
- josephcsible 5y agoTo be clear, they're needed to accurately count calories out. You can count calories in perfectly accurately without them.
- limitedmage 5y agoHeart rate levels during exercise also depend on age and sex (among other things). This is how you can get heart rate zones to know how intense your exercise is.
- SR2Z 5y ago> Like, dear watch, how's my sex, birthday, size and weight gonna help you do your job? Come on. Every single one of those is an input for modelling calorie burn. If you don't want your watch to try and estimate that, that's fine - but it's pretty obvious why a fitness tracker would have those features.
- celsoazevedo 5y agoFor Android users, there's the open source app Gadgetbridge. It works with some watches/bands and headphones: - https://f-droid.org/packages/nodomain.freeyourgadget.gadgetbridge/ https://f-droid.org/packages/nodomain.freeyourgadget.gadgetb... - https://codeberg.org/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge/ https://codeberg.org/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge/
- smeej 5y agoI got an Amazfit Bip to use with GadgetBridge just for this reason, to have control over my data. It's definitely not a very sophisticated device, but it tracks my heart rate and activity and can track my walking routes if I want it to. And the data never leaves my devices.
- mateo1 5y agoYour post reminds me of how ironic it is that despite the amazing wealth of software that exists today day, if your use case involves any expectation of privacy you generally can't find anything that fits your needs.
- tveita 5y agoIt's out there but it gets deliberately buried instead of promoted. Back when I had access to a decently-sized database of scraped app data, a sure-fire way to find hidden gems was to search for apps that did not ask for internet access. Of course Google does not let you filter for that in any way in the app store, because people making and sharing apps without aggressively monetising them does not make money for Google.
- streety 5y agoI'm curious in what situations you were using the pulse oximeter. From what I've seen the performance of even the best watches is questionable in the normal range - one example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HIcwMhEny0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HIcwMhEny0