Random friend requests?

[LDB415]

How often do you get random friend requests from complete strangers? Would it seem strange to get a friend request from someone basically one generation age difference and with about a 4 times greater daily step average or is that just overly skeptical? Are there any online security risks to accepting friend requests based on the standard information available through this site? Apologies if any of those seem dumb but I'm new to this and still exploring and learning as I go.

[Alternator]

Be wary... Fitbit has a lot of data collected on you... including where you go when you go etc... How much of that data is leaking to strangers/friends.

Ok I put that at top because for me that is the important thing I wanted to say... Now a bit more:

I'm very new to fitbit (less than a week) and got a friend request. I had basically done no online anything, I'm just using the device to track my goals and would be happy if it worked without the need for internet.

I only saw the request in my email - notably, the profile pic in my email was of a nude woman in shower obscuring face (looked like a selfie).

So I jump online to figure out what is going on, how much of my data is leaking etc... I still have no idea how they found my account to be able to send a friend invite?

She has 3 other friends, all of whom have just her as theirs... steps shown on two of the friended profiles, one doesn't show that... All joined this month.

Long and the short, I won't report as I won't be adding them and don't really know that they aren't just an eager user new to the platform... But it did prompt me to log in on a computer and go through my privacy settings to hide as much as possible... Just remember when you add someone as a friend they can suddenly mine a whole heap more info on you.

[Odyssey13]

Hi @Alternator  and welcome to the forums. Fitbit isn't sharing your data or personal information with anyone. These scammers, for lack of a better word, spend a lot of time trying to get people to respond to their requests. You may have read where some of the members here have been involved to the point of texting, messaging, emailing and calling - which is their choice. I just saw several people post about the naked pictures. It's sad that people do this. A moderator has been informed about this. Glad you're being careful.

[Alternator]

Ahh cool - thanks for the heads up!

Out of curiosity how would they have found my profile to send the request?

[Odyssey13]

I'm not sure how they do that @Alternator . I keep my profile where only friends can see certain things and I only post here and not on the app feed. It doesn't seem to matter if your profile picture shows a person or an animal either. It seems you're cautious and check people out, which not too many people do. If you'd like to explore the forums further, check out the link in my signature and see what's on the other areas of this community.

[Ajwico]

Thanks for the advice, I did the same as you, checked and changed my
settings and I haven't had any since.
Hope you are enjoying using your fitbit 🙂

[Speckles6370]

Thanks for the post. I find all of this to be a bit disturbing...I went
through my settings and made my account much more private.

I wonder if there's a way Fitbit could be more proactive with this??

[nunleyam]

Both of my under-age kids have recently received spam friend requests with the icon of ladies showing their breasts.  I'm unable to block or report them as the parent and can't see the requests in the app through either the parent or child views.  How can these requests be blocked?  This is of great concern to me with the amount of child trafficking now.

[nunleyam]

Word through the grapevine is FitBit was bought by Google.... enough said?

[Lisa3344]

Ikr! I just got one this morning! 

I would like a report button! 

[Lisa3344]

I literally just got another friend request. 

I never posted it publicly. Only here. 

[Odyssey13]

@nunleyam  Google tendered an offer to purchase Fitbit, but with all the legal aspects, it hasn't been completed. Google doesn't own it. As for random scammers, as long as we're on the internet, it will happen. 

[Ajwico]

Maybe get in touch with them and see what they say.
I haven't had a friend request for a while but just got 1 today!

[ConcernedMum]

This happened to my child today too. I’m extremely concerned. I invested in the Ace 2 because I considered it to have appropriate privacy and safety settings for my child. 

[Ajwico]

To be honest I haven't really used the fitbit app to log my goals, I just
use my watch and record my goals in my daily chart on my phone, not sharing
with others though.

[CityLion]

At the three dots you may block and report those users that are unacceptable, commenting why.

[TheSadPanda1974]

I send them to random people, and I get them from random people. I'm not very picky. I had to lose/am losing a ton of weight. It's hard, and there aren't many people around my life who can empathize. Everyone here can empathize on some level, and I just like to have/give support.

I have had 3-4 come in from oddly attractive women who only have older men for friends. I'll accept any request, but if it looks like that, I remove it immediately. It's either someone who wants to wreck my marriage or someone who wants to steal from me - neither of those things I want. lol

[TheSadPanda1974]

Okay, that's pretty bad. I've never seen that many so fast...

[Lisa3344]

Ah, I'm kinda underage, so in a way, it's not safe. I would like to have the information on how people find me because this is the only public website on Fitbit I have ever posted. Other than posting privately to my friends that I know irl. 

At first, my profile was me from the side with my dog, so it showed that I was a girl, and a lot of men with big flexing mussels were friend requesting me, I just ignored it. But I changed it into what I have now, my dog as a puppy, and a lot of women have been requesting now. I get one at least once a week. 😕

One thing that is really weird and worries me, is that once on Fitbit someone requested a friend, and I declined. But I made an Instagram because all my friends did. I'm not super tech-genius about social media, so I made my account public on accident, and I noticed that the guy that looked at my story almost immediately ( I was checking what it was)  and saw that he looked exactly like the one that requested earlier. That's what has worried me. It's now private, and I actually deleted it for being on reels to much lol. 

[Williehutch03]

It super annoying 

[CityLion]

That inevitability comment is inappropriate cynicism in my opinion @Odyssey13. The database is maintained by Google now and has been to some degree since November 2019 Google announced its acquisition of Fitbit over a year earlier in November 2019, when Osterloh called it “an opportunity to invest even more in Wear OS as well as introduce Made by Google wearable devices into the market.” The benefit to the brand fitbit is statistics that indicate satisfied use by counting millions of troll and hacker accounts as legitimate users. The random attacks of the easiest and the most important to police are those that do not even own a tracker. Any bot or nefarious organization can mass generate “users” that mass generate “friend” requests. That sticky web could at times catch unwary adults and easily snag enough information to cause harm if they are accepted by trusting children. Absolutely no child should be getting friend requests “randomly”  No trackerless users should be able to request “friends.”  Allowing trial membership should block all features that potentially disturb sincere users. We are all in this together. Fitbit needs to rise to the challenge of cyber security as a partner not an accessory to exploitaion by error or design.