It's been 2 wks since Rebecca Fitbit announced the Sleep changes. I've read dozens of comments, almost all negative. I'm one of these people. Several users stated that they believed that their health depended on access to Fitbit data, esp sleep data. I feel for these people, but am not one of them.
I'm not sure who said, "if the service is free, you are the product [being sold]." Applied to broadcast tv. Should have applied to cable and satellite tv and streaming services. Definitely applies to tech. Sort of an update of "let the buyer beware" to "let the donee beware."
I paid $125 or so for a Fitbit Charge 5 a yr ago. If I'd subscribed to Fitbit Premium, I'd have paid another $90 or $100 by now. In return, I got lots of data while cycling and while sleeping--very useful, at least at first. As with a recent continuous glucose monitor that I wore for 3 wks (due to suspected low glucose while cycling), initially the data was amazing, but the newness wore off, I made a few adjustments, and after that the data was more or less old news.
I never read the initial disclosures when I signed up with Fitbit or when I agreed to transfer my service to Google. But I assumed that Google was selling the data in some form to end users like insurers, maybe in an identifying form so they could set premiums on how often someone lets his cellphone battery die or brakes or accelerates her car too hard.
My guess is that Google has simplified the data that it provides Fitbit users to relieve itself of some of the burden of storing the data. I wore my Fitbit continuously, except for when it was charging. This is a lot of data and, I suspect, a lot of data that is completely useless to the users, Google and third parties. An interesting question is whether Google has discontinued collected more detailed data during sleep or heart rate data along a GPS-charted running or cycling path, or whether it continues to collect this data for sale to third parties, but has elected not to share it with the Fitbit users from whom it was obtained.
It's a personal issue, but I don't really care what Google, State Farm, or the Department of Homeland Security knows about my heart rate, my sleeping patterns (or, in my case, the sleeping patterns of me and my ever-restless four Rhodesian Ridgebacks who nightly occupy my bed). But the development of the vast data servers (masters?) and their surprising uses (not involving our sleeping or cycling) is the subject of a recent book, Underground Empire by Henry Farrell and someone else, whose name Google can quickly supply you in a few key strokes and whose book Amazon can almost as quickly deliver to you in a few more key strokes.
I don't like the Sleep (or Exercise) update, but don't really care that much. For those more reliant on this data, if they can afford it, maybe they can find another provider, perhaps with a monthly user fee or with a much higher wearable purchase price or more eager third-party data buyers. If another service is unaffordable, perhaps users will find some solace in the fact that, even dumbed down a little, the Fitbit wearable tech is affordable (if you're ok with the privacy issues) and, in any event, still amazing!
Let's not forget all the data that Google is storing--in my case, utterly unimportant data that I should delete (or try to). Underground Empire gives an idea of the vastness of data storage facilities and operations. It's overwhelming, maybe even for Google! I don't think Google needs any defenders, but, if we consider the vastness of the data that Google has acquired from countless Fitbits, Chromebooks, searches and I don't know what else, maybe we can better understand Google's unwillingness to restore the more detailed Sleep app that it recently updated, despite all of our complaints.
Peace.
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