Make Fitbit account/profile invisible and unsearchable

[SunsetRunner]

Option to make my account invisible for privacy and safety.

We've all had inappropriate friend requests on fitbit. No woman or adolescent should have to put up with that and I'm even more concerned now my 13.5 year old daughter has a Charge 3. As a middle aged male I've even had my share of invites that frankly I would rather not see.

Not all of us want to take advantage of the social features of fitbit, so for our safety and privacy could you please add the simple option to make our accounts fully invisible to others.

Please note that I have already locked down as much data as possible under Privacy Settings and closed off what I can under Notifications, but it still doesn't totally stop it.

Many thanks

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject and label

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi @Lgilbow. Thanks for taking the time to share this suggestion about making your Fitbit account completely invisible with us. We rely on feedback like yours to help us develop products and features that we know our community wants to see. If this suggestion receives votes from other customers and gains popularity, it will be shared internally with various teams at Fitbit. To learn more about how Fitbit decides which suggestions get developed, visit our FAQs.

Watch this space for status updates. In the meantime, try visiting Health & Wellness to talk with other members about all things health and fitness.

[AliceLockett]

I actually find this really shocking. I bought a fitness tracker not a new social media app.

[SunsetRunner]

I fully support this idea. I want my profile to be completely invisible to anyone outside my friends' list. And that includes my profile photo and my about me status which right now are visible to everyone. Could you please take this into consideration and build this into the mobile app? Thanks you. 

[ConcernedParent]

2 of my children and their friends have received the friend requests with nude photos. What is being done about this? We need a simple option under the privacy settings that says "ALLOW NEW FRIEND REQUESTS" "YES" "NO". Fitbit needs to step up to the plate here.

[aloveroc]

Fitbit, this issue needs to be resolved immediately. We need to be able to make invisible profiles. I have received several spam 'friend' requests from people with pornographic image profiles and links to (i'm assuming) pornographic sites.

Spoke to fitbit help desk... Their current solution is to remove all notifications for friend requests and messages -> How does this solve anything?

Second, apparently they cannot even remove these illicit users on their end? 

Fitbit, this must be addressed immediately. 

[MYLAMEN]

WHY DO WE NEED TO VOTE JUST ADD THIS FEATURE

[SunsetRunner]

I too am receiving friend requests with nude profile pictures. Can someone tell me how to vote on this topic? I am logged in, have a profile name, and nothing I click on allows me to vote. 

[SunsetRunner]

Allow profiles to be set to private.

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi @SunsetRunner. Thanks for sharing this suggestion about having your Fitbit profile invisible to avoid receiving unwanted friend requests with us. This idea was already requested in the Feature Suggestions board, so I’ve moved your post here. This will help us to keep the forums organized and make sure the suggestions don't get confused, or split a popular vote. Click on the thumbs-up to show your support.

[MYLAMEN]

    .

[CityRoast]

I wonder if the moderators, I presume are volunteers,  and the forum voting system do not really have any connection to change. LizzyFitbit, are there FitBit management staff we can call beyond a forum? Is there another process we can tap into to be heard effectively to lead to change? FitBit has lost customers and those customers will spread the word to avoid FitBit. That is a business concern. I’m puzzled why pornographic and sexual solicitation requires a vote. Something wrong and illegal does not need to be voted on. So are there some who vote in favor pornographic and sexual solicitations and unwanted friend request? Since my first complaint many months ago I’ve stopped receiving unwanted friend requests. So has there been a change? It does not sound like it happened for others. 

[lalabrucey]

5 years and counting. My similar post has a lot of votes, and yet.... Nothing. I have a versa and have been a loyal fitbit fan for over 5 years now but am considering alternatives for when this one dies. The lack of interest in what the customers are requesting is a concern as well as the major issues with unsolicited, often explicit requests and the fact that they won't add metric energy as a display unit to the watch. It's a simple calculation for goodness sake!!! I have tried to hang in there and considered going premium at one point but certainly wont be doing that as they seem not to care about the basics so why would premuim be any different. I love my fitbit but these issues are deal breakers for me after this long providing "feedback". I hear Garmin is good so possibly that will be my next purchase

[MYLAMEN]

Why cant i vote for this? why should i have to vote for this. Privacy is a thing that should be available for kids? Why would Fitbit not want to protect the young and vulnerable? Sounds like a pretty good core value to have?

[MYLAMEN]

LizzyFitbit when will this be looked at? There are more threads that are asking the same thing. Here is one of many:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/Turn-off-Friend-Requests-to-avoid-romantic-reque...

[Leavemealone111]

It seems the only way this issue will be addressed is if the news papers start publishing stories about these issues. It's a shame that a company can't take simple precautions.

[MYLAMEN]

I am trying my best to advocate for this. But as much as I do not want to be visible, I have to be in order to be be heard. This makes no sense to me? Anyways I support this feature and hope it will be implemented for the benefit of all. 

👇Please support and vote for this👇 For your sake and for the sake of other children that use Fitbit. 

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/Make-Fitbit-account-profile-invisible-and-unsear...

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/Fitbit-need-to-make-it-an-option-to-turn-off-dir...

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/Turn-off-Friend-Requests-to-avoid-romantic-reque...

Thank you.

Even though this is something that should never have to be voted on. 

[aUserWithNoName]

Nothing has been done on this issue because Fitbit clearly values "networking" and "social connection" features (i.e., marketing and "engagement") over user preference. It stinks.

[MYLAMEN]

 .  .

[FitDebi]

Please let our accounts be private.  And say no yo friend requests!

[FitDebi]

Ha! If you want to vote go to the first post on this topic and click the up thumb! We all missed it!

[CityLion]

The database is maintained by Google now. 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 that would be 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 exploitation by error or design. 

Everyones fitbit profile url is public to the entire world. Whoever wants to request you as a "friend" does not need to see any other activity from you to harrass you. That is profoundly wrongheaded security in this age.  

PS Thank you I see the vote is at the top only.  ( Found with help I see nowhere to vote for this critical security update.)  It should be done with the default set to private for every url in Fitlandia as soon as posible.  This is minimum system security management it is not a hopeful feature in my opinon as others have often expressed.  

[PCPatti]

I had knee replacement surgery recently and am not able to walk as I did before. I should be able to make my steps private instead of being shown as the last one in my group of friends in number of weekly steps. I would like the ability to make my step count private, this needs to be an option under privacy.

[Jmbehr]

it's so ridiculous lately the amount of "friend" requests I get from men lately. Fitbit is not a dating site (and I'm not a single woman). If I'm not friends with you (stranger) I don't really want to interact with you out on my fitness app. When I look at these people and see all of their friends are just female it's kind of creepy. I would love a feature where your profile can be just locked/private/whatever so I don't constantly get these requests that I have to decline and block. Come on Fitbit do something about this and your privacy categories. Your users need to be protected. 

[RFDZ]

Agree 100%. I'm male and had the same issue. I'm not interested in
prostitution, just being healthier, and that's not anybody else's business.

[SunsetRunner]

Despite being two and a half years since registering this suggestion and an empathetic response, no action has been taken. It would seem that basic user privacy and security is not important to fitbit / Google. In this respect there are clearly better fitness platforms out there. Personally I have made the jump to Garmin where I have had none of this nonsense and get much better metrics. We have also decided that fitbit is not appropriate for our daughter so she is no longer using the platform. Sad as it would seem to be an easy fix in user settings.