What are the actual privacy implications of using a fitness tracker with mostly pseudonymous information?
What are the actual privacy implications of using a fitness tracker with mostly pseudonymous information?
For example, let's say I want to use a Fitbit. I download the app, enter my real height and weight, but I give a masked email, fake name, fake birthday, etc. I always use the app with a VPN.
When doing an outdoor activity, I would allow my precise location on a run.
Is there really much of a privacy risk if they don't know who I am?
Please don't just suggest Gadgetbridge or a similar alternative.
So, like with a lot of things it depends on your risk tolerance. If you have Android and don't take steps to keep Google from your location, the only extra thing your giving Google with Fitbit is your heart rate, activity level, weight, and menstrual cycle (if applicable). They'll (probably) sell this information in bulk to advertisers so they can link your advertisement ID to ads relevant to you, like ads for stationary bikes or whatever.
When faced with this problem what I said to myself was, "I can't selfhost and build a fitness tracker. So some company is going to get my info. I'll break it up as much as I can." I use Garmin.
Garmin watches are a quality product. I'm fond of the ones with eink displays so I don't have to charge the but once a month. Garmin has my health info. Proton has my emails. Google has my calendar events (Google calendar has no reasonable replacement imo.)
I know you didn't ask for other product recommendations. But all of this is a long winded way of saying the danger is letting one company have all your information.
Companies and governments will always know something about you, unless you live on the the moon. The important thing is keeping track of who knows what and if one company begins to know an unreasonable amount (looking at you Google), then start cutting off that company.
Lastly, consider your political climate. If I'm a woman in Texas I'm likely not going to let any company know when my last period was.
I replaced google calendar with proton calendar
When I asked about smart watches on reddit back in the day Garmin was recommended a lot, so they seem to be really solid.
Thank you for the well-reasoned response! I am definitely leaning toward Garmin or Withings because of their privacy policies.
IMO it isn't so much about knowing who you are, but where you are, what you do, what you like etc. From that they (e.g. G👀gle) will extrapolate a profile and do whatever they want with it - faked data or not.
Furthermore Fitbit belongs to Google. I wouldn't use a Google product if I was concerned about privacy.
When doing an outdoor activity, I would allow my precise location on a run.
It is well-known now that anonymizing location data still does not preserve privacy: https://iapp.org/news/a/getting-lost-in-the-crowd-the-limits-of-privacy-in-location-data-2/
As another person mentioned Fitbit belongs to Google. If you are an Android user chances are Google knows who you are and can correlate Fitbit user account with your identity.
Use more private device with 3rd party fitness app
Pseudonymous just means it’s slightly more annoying for you. Given the reidentification that happens readily to “deidentified” information you’re absolutely getting that information tied back to you in some data broker database.