Ever go hiking with your pup out in the middle of nowhere where there is no cell service? Fun, right? Ever had them take off after a deer and disappear? Not so fun, right? This is the gadget for you. Attach one little tab to your dog's collar and the other little tab to you and you can track your frisky pup anywhere. As long as your furry friend doesn't scamper more than 3 miles away, you can keep tabs on them on an app on your phone, no cell service required. Nice! For an extra $4 a month. you can sign up for their Findster Care service that monitors your pet's activity and uses AI to help determine if there are any changes in your pet's behavior that you should be aware of.
What could happen if something goes wrong?
Not a whole lot, really. Because it uses GPS-tracking rather than cell or Wi-Fi, this product seems pretty safe as far as we can tell. Findster does say the can sell or share your aggregated, de-identified data with anyone. This is a pretty common practice so most likely nothing to worry about. Although many privacy researchers will point out it is relatively easy to de-anonymize such data.
Can it snoop on me?
Camera
Device: No
App: Yes
Microphone
Device: No
App: Yes
Tracks location
Device: Yes
App: Yes
What can be used to sign up?
Yes
Phone
No
Third-party account
Yes
What data does the company collect?
Personal
Email, name, date of birth
Body related
Social
Friends
How does the company use this data?
How can you control your data?
What is the company’s known track record of protecting users’ data?
No known incidents in the last 2 years.
Can this product be used offline?
User-friendly privacy information?
Links to privacy information
Does this product meet our Minimum Security Standards?
Encryption
Uses encryption in transit and at rest.
Strong password
Security updates
Manages vulnerabilities
Privacy policy
Does the product use AI?
For their AI-powered vet subscription service, Findster’s AI-powered health platform considers a pet's characteristics (like breed, age or weight) together with the location and activity data collected from the Duo units to produce alerts of behaviour change and enable early detection of potential health issues.
Is this AI untrustworthy?
What kind of decisions does the AI make about you or for you?
Is the company transparent about how the AI works?
Does the user have control over the AI features?
Comments
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