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?
Findster seems to do a pretty good job taking your privacy seriously. They say they don’t share your data and will only share personally identifiable data when you direct them to. This is all great. They do say they may share or sell de-identified data that does not identify you for marketing and purposes or they may sell it to interested audiences. This generally doesn’t worry us too much. It is a good time to point out that many privacy researchers claim it can be relatively easy to de-anonymize such data, especially location data.
What could go wrong with Findster. Hopefully not too much. It is a GPS tracker though, so know that someone could track you or your cat or dog or pig, and know you like to take walks in the woods at 8am every morning. They could then know when you and Fido are out of the house, break in and rob you of all your valuables. Bad people could learn the same thing by watching your daily routine in real life too, so be sure to always lock up!
Tips to protect yourself
Ensure that your GPS tracker is always updated with the latest version of firmware
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
Name, email, date of birth, address, phone number
Body related
Size, weight, gender, age of your pet
Social
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 3 years.
Can this product be used offline?
User-friendly privacy information?
Links to privacy information
Does this product meet our Minimum Security Standards?
Encryption
Strong password
Security updates
Manages vulnerabilities
Privacy policy
Does the product use AI?
Dive Deeper
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Buddy's Wearable Is Not Your Buddy: Privacy Implications of Pet WearablesDirk Van Der Linden, et al.
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