Use Our Location Data For Good Not Evil!

[thenameless1]

I don’t know if everyone remembers the article about fitness trackers and apps providing information about military bases overseas (I attached an article below).  Of interest is the statement provided by the Fitbit spokesperson, Heather Pierce.

“Fitbit is committed to protecting consumer privacy and keeping data safe. Unlike a smartphone, location data is not collected by Fitbit unless a user gives us access to the data and users can always remove our access.”

Now, the articles and the statement are like a year old and a lot has changed.  Recently Fitbit started requiring 24/7 access to the location or for the setting to be set to “always” in order to use features that previously worked fine.  I have a fitbit Blaze and used to have my setting to “while using the app” and I was able to track my run by starting it on the blaze. I can’t do that anymore unless its set to “always.”

So, it appears fitbit changed its mind on that statement and I get it business needs change and such. I still can’t understand why fitbit needs 24/7 access to track a 30 min run though, but that’s a different topic in its own. The only thing I can think of that changed is that Google is buying fitbit. I’m guessing maybe Google wants to track everyone 24/7, kind of like the issue with the military.

So, I’ve given Fitbit access to my location 24/7 in order to continue to use the features of my Blaze. Fitbit is collecting my location data 24/7 just like my smartphone, but what exactly is Fitbit doing with my data?

I read the privacy policy and it’s a little vague or leaves a lot to the imagination. I’ve fully come to terms with the fact that’s it’s a matter of time before we all start seeing Google Ads, but do you guys actually do anything good with the data?

I’m not sure if Fitbit is already doing this, but it would be nice to see if it existed in real time.

Here is a what if Scenario:

A child is kidnapped in San Francisco and an Amber Alert is issued. You get the description of a car and license plate, but this kid is wearing a Fitbit Ace. It’s a different game now! At this point every fitbit user is actively looking for this child and not even knowing about it! Plus there is no delay in relaying information between authorities and the location can be pinpointed in real time! The authorities could even move in on the suspect without them even knowing and do so in a safe manner!

Building on the scenario:

Let’s say the kidnapper made it out of San Francisco.  They caught a flight to New York or driving to another state. Fitbit users in different states are now waiting for the child’s tracker to ping off their phone. Just when they think they are safe the authorities move in.  No news warnings no checkpoints.

So are you guys using the information collected in this manner and in real time or are we just going to get an ad down the road?

I attached a youtube video. Here they used it to improve traffic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5utwwI0UBM

[Rich_Laue]

Sorry @thenameless1 Fitbit does not track your location 24/7. 

The only tme Fitbit will track a users position is when the user requests it, and that would be during a gps recorded event. 

I'm not sure what changed with iOS but on android, do your own search for Mac, Bluetooth, android. 

Android a few years ago discovered a security hole that will allow anybody full access to a phone during a Bluetooth Mac request. Android made a change to close this hole and in doing so needs the location services turned on when a Mac is requested. Fitbit requests this of your tracker. 

After a successful sync, go to your phones settings. Check who requested your location and you will notice that both Fitbit and the OS did not request location. 

Fitbit does not insist on having location services on, Android does. Also having location on and the app having access to location does not mean that the app is requesting location any more that unlocking your front door means that everyone driving by will stop and open the door. 

As for Google tracking, it will be many months before the countries will allow this acquire of Fitbit, If you have an Android phone, even with location services off, both Google and your phone provider know where you are. They have been doing a great job without Fitbit. 

When it comes to the military, please reread the facts. 

• Soldiers used the gps function during runs. 
• Some soldiers have their Fitbit accounts connected to Strava. 
• These users, when using gps with Fitbit to record runs had their runs uploaded to Strava. 
• Strava the owners of Global Heat Map sent the data to them. 
• Global Heat then put these locations on a map of with other gps recorded exercises 
• The breach was not directly a Fitbit problem, they keep your gps data safe. 
• Fitbit has no control over what Strava does with the data that the Fitbit user authorized Fitbit to send to data. 

[thenameless1]

@Rich_Laue I believe that the Fitbit app is working a little differently on iOS. I did read the article that fitbit has regarding the issue pertaining to location on android 6.0 and going forward. I couldn't find an article regarding that for iOS though.

I've provided this link because it shows that Fitbit is now "requiring" location services to be set to "always." It wasn't always that way and no explanation for the change (like the article for android 6.0)

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/iOS-App/Background-App-Refresh-Affecting-GPS/m-p/3913933#M124015 The pictures show that i have no issue obtaining a GPS signal with the option "while using the app," but the feature is rendered useless due to the popup message. So in order to use the fitbit as originally intended you have to agree to the 24/7 access.

This 2nd link is where it gets kind of scary, because based on what your saying this shouldn't be happening. https://community.fitbit.com/t5/iOS-App/Fitbit-was-shamed-by-Apple-now-what/m-p/3964565#M126464 My iphone "caught" fitbit using my location in the background!

Now in the original post it could be possible that the child doesn't have a phone.  Fitbit markets the Ace trackers for children 6+ and allows the device to be connected to one phone.  So maybe the child was syncing to their parents device.

Anyway with an amber alert i'd like to think it would be an all hands on deck scenario where everyone would be looking to have the child safely returned.

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update/edit- This was originally  posted in the feature request section with a label for "sustainability" because i thought it would be a nice feature to have. I'm not an android user! I'm an iphone user. I didn't post it in here or the ios section because it is't app specific. Based on the comments by @Rich_Laue  it's clear that the iphone and android apps work it different ways.  I thought i was still replying to my post in the feature request section. I have no idea how it ended up here!