Family account - Family members being added to each other's friends lists - Safeguarding Issue

[tallbird]

My son had a Fitbit Ace - I say "had" because I sent it back for a refund after getting so frustrated with the Family account.

One of the issues I had was that when I added "family" members to the account, it added all of the people in the family, to the friends lists of all the people in the family - and there was no way to remove them.

To explain further - as there is no option to add "friends" to a child's family account, I added all of the people he might want to interact with as family.  However, not all of those people know each other.   For example, my step-father does not know the young female friend of my son that he wanted to be able to fitbit challenge, but having added them both to our "family" my step-father and this child were added to each other's friends lists?

Now, I'm pretty sure that is wrong on so many levels.   In this instance my friend (the mother of the child) was pretty cool about it - but it shouldn't happen!  Why does it happen?

Worse still, 3 weeks after deleting the family account I see that these people are still friends.  My parents are still on the friends lists of children they don't know.   And those friends can't be deleted.

This is clearly a safeguarding issue and needs to be addressed immediately. 

moderator edit: format, capitalization 

[Julia_G]

Hi, @tallbird, while I think I understand your issue, I think the general assumption is that anyone you authorise as a member of your child's family, you trust -- at least you trust them to have legitimate friends.  Of course, you do not know those friends, so it does not go further than this one level -- friends of friends are not added.  

I think it is designed that way for the following reason: supposing your child has a friend who also has an Ace.  The kids would like to participate in challenges together.  You send a friend request to the parent, and then the child (who is the parent's "friend") can interact with your child.  Other friends of the parent also can, but friends of friends cannot (unless you specifically add them).  If not for this arrangement, your child could not interact with other children (because children cannot add each other -- they can only be added as parents friends).  It is specifically and intentionally set up so that children can only interact with people the parent trusts.

Of course, as a parent, through the Family Account, you have full control and opportunity to see any messages/challenges/interactions between anyone else and your child, and also have full control over friends you choose for your child, and you can delete anyone inappropriate at any time.

I appreciate that you have returned your child's Fitbit.  I am just answering in case another parent might have a similar concern.

Once a family account is fully deleted all the friend relationships created by the family account will also disappear.   There may be some delay in seeing this, but I expect you will find that your parents are unable to contact children they do not know.  

[tallbird]

Julia, I don’t think you do understand the issue.  

Even if i trust the people i add to “my family” I don’t expect Fitbit to link them together OUTSIDE of “my family”.  

What if I add my child’s 2 grandmothers - both of whom I trust - but they hate each other?   Under the current family account setup they would be added to each other’s friends list with no way of preventing it, and no way of deleting that connection!!!

is that ok? 

How about if if I add my 66 year old dad and a 13 year old girl school friend - both of whom I trust, neither of whom know each other - if you were the mother of the 13 year old, would you be happy that a random old guy was now on her friends list??  No.  You wouldn’t.  

Worse still - and ive have a friend test this for me today - even though my family account has been deleted for 3 weeks, the connections it created between people are still there and can’t be removed.  

THIS IS NOT OK.   

[Julia_G]

Hi, @tallbird, I am sure that there were many ways of designing this, and since I don't work for Fitbit, I don't know about all the constraints or how they made their design decisions.

As I understand it, the point of creating a family group is specifically so the people within the group can interact with eachother and with your child.

As a parent, you must, of course. make your own decisions about social media for your child.

[tallbird]

I understand you don't work for Fitbit, so - to be honest - I would appreciate you not trying to tell me how you think their design was intended to work, or excusing what I still believe is a flawed system. 

I would really like to hear from someone at Fitbit with some actual facts and explaination.

I believe the Family Account and the Family within that is (or should be) designed so parents can add people who are "safe" for their children to be friends with.   I do not think there is any need for those  people to be forcibly linked to each other.

If nothing else, I suspect the fact that this happens without the permissions of those added to a Family, that is breaching some sort of privacy rules.   On pretty much every other social media platform, you are not ever given or linked with people without being asked for your permission for this to happen.

Here, the people in the Family are asked to link with the child - unless I'm mistaken - there is nothing that tells them they will also be linked with everyone else that child has in their Family.   Even if they are warned, there should be an opt out.   It's just not on.

The fact that Fitbit have yet to respond - apart from deleting the other thread I started on this issue - is interesting. 

[Julia_G]

Hi, @tallbird, I appreciate that you are not happy with the design and have moved on.  From your earlier posts I understand that you have returned your son's Ace, and no longer have a family account.  However, as you have continued in the discussion, I am answering in case others are reading and are concerned.

First: this is a peer-to-peer help forum and the majority of threads will be answered by another user, such as myself, rather than a Fitbit employee.  That is both the intention and the design of the Fitbit Community Forums.  If you, or any user, wants direct input from a Fitbit employee you can always contact them on contact.fitbit.com via phone, email, or (during certain hours) web chat.

As for Family Accounts, the design is specific so that children can interact with adults and other children, but ONLY those the parent approves and specifically adds to the Family Account.  A child will then have access to any "family" member's friends -- that is so kids can compete with each other on challenges, because, as it is currently set up, kids cannot friend each other -- it is all filtered through adults that the parent approves.  This is designed to keep kids safe.

If you add someone to your Family Account an email is sent to that person to agree.  If they do not agree, they are not added.  No one is added to an account without accepting.

For myself, I have not fully tested the wider implications, but I am not surprised that members of a "family" also find themselves linked to each other as well to some extent.  I am guessing that it would be difficult to write the program to allow them to interact in the "family" without linking them, and I suppose, as I mentioned earlier, the assumption is that if your add Great Uncle George you accept that he is an acceptable person to engage with your child.  Also, if Cousin Amanda agrees to join your family, it is reasonable for her to expect that she will also have to be connected with Great Uncle George.

In fact, this is a very loose connection... In practice Amanda never has to talk to George if she doesn't like him.  If she does not want to have anything to do with him, then she can leave the Family (which she voluntarily joined), so your statement that there is no way to remove the connection is incorrect.

The important point of the design of the Family Account is to safeguard children, and my impression is that Fitbit has designed this very carefully.  It seems that your point is more about adults in the "family" being connected to each other.  But, that's kind of what happens in a family... At least with a Fitbit you can opt out!

[KateFitbit]

@tallbird family accounts are meant for up to 11 loved ones to connect and help each other reach fitness goals. In order to interact with each other, they need to be friends so members of the family will become friends with each other if a friendship isn't established. You and your kids will not be connected to friends outside of the family. If you decide to leave the family, you can unfriend any former family members.

I appreciate your feedback and concerns and have passed this along to our team. You may want to create a feature suggestion requesting that family members not automatically become friends. It's a new feature for Fitbit and we continue to upgrade and improve the service. 

@Julia_G thanks for your input here!

[colombo13]

I understand you don't work for Fitbit, so - to be honest - I would appreciate you not trying to tell me how you think their design was intended to work, or excusing what I still believe is a flawed system. 

I would really like to hear from someone at Fitbit with some actual facts and explaination.

___________________________________________________

Clean Master Facebook Lite  Mathway 

[Rich_Laue]

@colombo13 please read @KateFitbit's response imeadiatly above yours. Thank you Kate for noticing this thread and jumping in.

@Julia_G did give instructions on how to reach out to Fitbit if your interested.

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[Rich_Laue]

If you need help and are wondering how to identify a Fitbit Community team member or employee, we have some tips to help simplify your search for assistance!   There are a few