Why does Fitbit track my location?

[SunsetRunner]

I just received a the following notification from my iPhone: "Fitbit" has been using your location in the background.  Do you want to continue allowing this?

I have very serious questions for which I request very serious, thoughtful, intelligent responses.

07/03/2018 7:56 AM

1) I never ever ever allow an app to track my location, ever!  Why did Fitbit decide to track my location always?

2) How is this data used by Fitbit?

3) How do I use this data to manage my health which is MY data (not Fitbit's data) collected by MY Fitbit device which I own (not Fitbit)?

Moderator Edit: Clarified Subject + Format.

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @SunsetRunner, I hope you're having a great day, it's nice to see you around. 

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Please note that after installing the Fitbit app and logging in for the first time, the Fitbit app will prompt two pop-ups on the screen. The first one will ask you to turn on "Location Services" and the other will ask you to "Receive Notifications". The Fitbit app won't turn on location services on its own, this needs a user input. 

Rest assured, Fitbit does not track your location unless you are recording an exercise or activity with GPS. For more information, see How do I track my exercise and activities with Fitbit? Select Fitbit devices (such as the Charge 2, Versa and Blaze) can capture connected GPS data including route, distance, and pace in your exercise history, this is accomplished when Location Services are turned on.

If your device isn’t compatible with GPS, you can use the Fitbit app to capture GPS data during your workouts (known as MobileRun -which also uses Location Services-). For more information, see How do I use the Fitbit app to capture GPS data?

If you would like to disable Location Services, please go to the phone Settings > Fitbit > Location Services and select "Never". Keep in mind that turning this feature off will prevent you from using connected GPS if you have a Blaze, Charge 2 or Versa and will prevent MobileRun from tracking your GPS route. 

I hope this resolves your inquiry, if there's anything else I can do for you, please feel free to reply. 

[roozbeh]

@MarcoGFitbit Unfortunately, that's not necessarily the case: I let fitbit to "Always" track my location, so that I can get a map of my outdoor run. Yet, many times I noticed that the last app accessing my location has been fitbit, even though I was not doing any exercise and fitbit app was just reading my location, for no apparent reason.

[SunsetRunner]

Did you receive a response from Fit Bit?

[roozbeh]

Me? No, I didn't receive any replies from fitbit. I have not contacted them directly though.

[SunsetRunner]

Hello. Privacy nerd here. I have location services turned off for almost everything. I have no need for Fitbit to track my GPS position. Yesterday I was visiting NYC, and the app invited me to a local event. How did it know my location? It did not ask, and I was not tracking location for a workout.

I checked Settings, and found ‘Ask’ under location settings. It did not ask me. I have now set it to ‘Never’ after jumping through various hoops described in the forums. I have no confidence it will stay that way. 

[Dogu]

It is outrageous that they — fitbit —require me to tell them my location on  date night with my wife as a condition for telling me my route map during my run. The system worked fine previously when it only activated while using. And now that Google has acquired them, I think they will also be selling your data to health companies (as demonstrated by the recent Google news story on sale of health data). So I think I need to find another brand of fitness tracker!

[wdeuring]

I also block location tracking.  My Versa fitbit is set to NEVER track, and yet every single time I turn on my iphone it has a "reminder" that my watch tracking is not on and please go to settings to turn it on.  Why is this so absolutely important to Fitbit?  I am getting deeply annoyed.

[fb91745]

Ever figure out how they knew?