Yet AGAIN, Privacy Issues with Daily Step Count!

[Poxiemarx]

I stopped wearing my Fitbit for months ( nearly a year and a half on and off ((mostly off))when seeing nothing has been done despite the mass feedback) due to this. It’s an absolute invasion of privacy and we should be able to control what friends see and not be forced into a “community” especially if were struggling with an illness of any kind that affects how many steps we take and that has bad days and good days. Sometimes you want your friends to know about that and sometimes you don’t’!

Since we can not hide our average daily step count, I’ve even gotten messages from people asking if I’m OK when I prefer to keep things private because they see my steps drop significantly.

It is apparent that just because I want privacy sometimes, I’m going to have to “unfriend” my friends. I want to use my Fitbit to monitor things for myself but I still ( YEARS after requesting this be brought back along with countless other users/customers) don’t have the option of deciding what they see and that is insane to me.

I think we’ve all been told about the other privacy options enough when we are already aware this daily step count being forced to be shared with friends is the major privacy/personal choice issue here.

We should have the option to make our daily step count private from friends as well when we choose to. It’s our personal health information.

I feel that I should just give up on my Fitbit yet again and find something that has more privacy BUT don’t have money just laying around to invest in various monitors for a simple privacy feature that Fitbit could EASILY bring back but chooses not to despite thousands of requests from people who have spent their hard earned money on your product.

This issue has been brought up repeatedly for well over three years and we keep getting the same responses from the Fitbit moderators.

It’s really unacceptable to ignore our feedback and respond with the same answer in different formulations over and over and over when people are paying ( and so much at that! ) for your product.

Do you have any idea how many people stop using your product because of this? Do you care? It seems like you definitely do not!

I know at least 10 people who stopped wearing theirs or had to unfriend everyone due to this! Do you have any idea how many people stop using your product because of this?

What’s been made clear to us is that anyone that works for Fitbit is told to tell us as your customers that you want a sense of community for us when in reality Fitbit does not respect your users’/customers’ privacy or listen to their feedback and take it seriously.

To reiterate; This parroted response of wanting to create a “ sense of community “ is both condescending and insulting to us as adults ( apparently Fitbit knows what’s best for us regarding our privacy, and not us as individuals!) and especially insulting to those of us with injuries or illnesses.

[WendyB]

On your Dashboard go into settings then on the left hand side clink on Privacy. You can make what ever you want private so no one sees

[DNK2]

@Poxiemarx- I actually stopped using my Fitbit and switched to a different brand after years of non-answers regarding this same issue.  I still follow the forums, and was stunned to find that the post that initially brought me to you was moved to a different forum and then immediately locked by the mods so I couldn't reply there.  At this point I'm also going to suggest to my husband that he switch to a different brand when his current Fitbit dies as well.  Very disappointed.  Sorry you're going through this too.

[DNK2]

@WendyB- Average Daily Step Count cannot be made private.  The only options available to me are "Friends Only" or "Public".  Fitbit replied to another one of @Poxiemarx's posts yesterday saying that the feature suggestion already exists but is not currently planned. 

[Rich_Laue]

One thing to point out is that Fitbit is designed to have a social aspect. If a user does not agree with the terms then maybe the user should not accept the terms. 

Making the average steps and leader board private kind of goes against the social aspect of fitbit. Maybe you would be better off with a 5 dollar offline device from 5 Below. 

[DNK2]

Fitbit used to have the feature, but it was removed.  Back when I agreed to the TOS, this data was able to be made private.  This feature has since been removed.  For me personally, once the feature was removed and determined not worth re-implementing, I removed all of my Fitbit friends until I could afford to replace my device with something else that is high quality (a $5 device would not meet my fitness needs, and I bought Fitbit because it was a high quality device, not because it was a social one).  Once I could afford it, I switched to another brand entirely that does not have a social aspect.  For others in this boat, I would recommend just removing all of your friends until you are able to afford switching to a different brand that also meets your needs.

[WendyB]

Sorry @DNK2  I thought it was still an option. That's to bad there is no plan to chnage it either as I know a lot of people who would like it