Amazon Halo Band

Last year when Amazon came out with the Halo Band, we were like, Amazon, you've done it. You've taken creepy to a whole new level. We gave the Halo Band our *Privacy Not Included warning label because we felt just because you can, doesn't mean you should potentially collect all that data, do tone of voice analysis, and ask for pictures of people in their underwear be uploaded to Amazon. The problem isn't that all the data this device collects will be kept insecurely, Amazon generally does a good job securing your data. The problem is what Amazon could potentially use all this data for. While Amazon states that it currently does not use Halo health data for marketing, product recommendations, or advertising, the Halo is still collecting a lot of personal body-related information about you—including potentially listening to what you say and measuring your tone. What can give you insights into your health, could also potentially give others information about things like your emotional state while you are looking at something, how attracted you are to someone, or even if you've been drinking. That level of personal information is not something we want Amazon—or any other tech company—potentially knowing.

And we weren't alone in our concerns. Others raised them as well. One journalist even asked Amazon if they would consider an independent privacy audit of the Halo Band. They did not take him up on the offer. Shoot, this fitness tracker even scared some members of the US Congress enough to address it. And so this year, because we haven't seen much change, we’ve stuck to our decision to keep the *Privacy Not Included warning label on this product.

And Amazon proudly states they are not in the business of selling your personal information to others, which is good. However, a good question to ask is, why would Amazon need to sell your data when they have their own advertising and retail juggernaut to use your data to sell you more stuff? Because Amazon is in the business of selling you more stuff. This means Amazon collects a whole lot of data on you -- records of your TV viewing habits, shopping habits, Alexa search requests, the music you stream, the podcasts you listen to, when you turn your lights on and off, when you lock your doors, and on and on and on.

What’s the worst that could happen? Well, you could turn on Amazon Halo’s tone policing features and they could listen to you all day long and determine that if you’re a man, your tone was “opinionated” and if you’re a woman your tone was “dismissive” or “condescending” and you could believe that and as a woman, think you should speak up less and as a man think you should speak up more, and hey, that is not at all what the world needs right now.