Authorization with Migration to Google Accounts

[sol_38]

Hello Fitbit Developers,

I am running a clinical trial using Fitbit devices and have a few questions about the migration to Google accounts. Right now, we are using a python script to pull activity data from users' accounts. The accounts are set up with the email in the format base+ID @Gmail.com, for example, study+12345 @Gmail.com, so only one parent account (study @Gmail.com) is needed. With the switch to Google logins, we will need to create an individual study Google account for each participant.

My concern is that creating hundreds of Google accounts from the same IP address will lead to Google flagging these accounts as spam. Even if that goes fine, Google may flag us for logging into 60 Google accounts in a short period of time when we run the script to download data. Is there any way to avoid these issues and ensure that we can create the necessary Google accounts and use our script to download data from the FitbitWebAPI?

Thank you so much

[JohnFitbit]

Hi @sol_38,

Welcome to the forums!

This is a great question. Let me ask around and see what the best approach is currently for the research community and I'll get back to you once I get more information.

[sol_38]

Thank you John!

[ClinResearchWFB]

@sol_38   I was under the impression if we already had established accounts prior to summer of 2023, then we could continue using those until 2025 sometime.  We routinely have used the strategy you outlined above so that we don't have to have BAAs with Fitbit and others.    Thus far we've not experienced any issues but our accounts are already setup.   It does sound like for future trials we'll need to use another disposable solution but I was assuming the existing accounts would continue to be allowed until sometime in 2025.  I hope that's the case or we will have to migrate a lot of users and that's not going to be a fun exercise.

[sol_38]

We currently have some accounts set up without a Google account and those are working fine for now. It's just that for automated data download Fitbit now defaults to Google login without an option to log in with Fitbit and we have to manually download all our data. Our trial will continue enrolling past 2025 so we just wanted to make the switch over to Google accounts before we have very many people enrolled. Hopefully we will find a way to get back to automated data download. 

[sol_38]

Hi @JohnFitbit,

Any update on the data download procedure? From answers to other questions on the forum it looks like study participants will need to create Google accounts on their end but I have not seen anything addressing data download from dozens of Google Accounts.

Thank you,

sol_38

[JohnFitbit]

Hi @sol_38,

Apologies for the delayed response, and I appreciate your patience.

Unfortunately, we don't have a defined process for the research community in terms of account creation for their participants at this time, however, our we're still working with the appropriate teams to solidify an ideal and long term solution.

Until we do, we recommend that researchers ask their participants to create their own Fitbit accounts to avoid any security flags and comply with our platform terms of services. Though, you may continue to create accounts for your participants if absolutely necessary.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions.

[sol_38]

Hi @JohnFitbit,

Will there be any way to download Fitbit data from our participants using a script like we did before the switch to Google Accounts? We are concerned that Google will flag us for trying to log in to dozens of Google Accounts every week when we run the script to download data.

Thank you,

sol_38

[JohnFitbit · Accepted solution]

@sol_38 I don't think anything changes post google migration, you should still be able to pull the data as you have before the migration. This is only changing how Fitbit users log into their accounts. I'd say continue as normal and if you run into any issues, then we can address them as you encounter them.

[KeepOnPushing]

Sol_38,

I am researcher at a medical center and also need to download the user data for a number of research participants (the study just started, but there will be around 100 participants in total).  

1.  Can you describe the function of the python script you are using for the download?  Would it be at all possible to obtain it?  I can share my email if you could send it.  One of the functions that we are looking for is to be able to create summary variables from the activity Excel file downloads so that we can obtain one score of the number of minutes of cardio zone for each day as well as the number of minutes of fat burning zone each day.   I will also post this as a general community question.

2. Is it the case that new accounts can only be created with a Google email?  I am also concerned that I won't be able to create 100 email accounts on Google from my one IP address.  Also, because Fitbit will send a dual factor authentication and require opening the email to verify, my research staff will need full access to the research gmail that we set up.  Not sure if this will be a red flag for Google.  Any thoughts on this?

Thank you,