Fitbit Charge 4

Bluetooth

Review date: Nov. 2, 2020

Mozilla says

If you want to hit your personal best and kick life’s butt, you’ve already wasted too much time reading this sentence. Your metabolic rate has dropped 2% lower than a sprinting cheetah. Just kidding. This GPS tracking, heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, stairs climbed, calories burned, swim proof fitness tracker pairs with you phone and computer to tell you if you are, indeed, kicking life’s butt.

What could happen if something goes wrong?

Fitbit seems to do a good job with privacy and security. It de-identifies the data it collects so it's (hopefully) not personally identifiable. We say hopefully because, depending on the kind of data, it’s been found to be pretty easy to de-anonymize these data sets and track down an individual’s patterns, especially with location data. So, just be aware with Fitbit--or any fitness tracker--you are strapping on a device that tracks your location, heart rate, sleep patterns, and more. That's a lot of personal information gathered in one place. One more consideration. Google is in the process of buying Fitbit. What does that mean? We don't know quite yet, but it does seem that all that sensitive data Fitbit collects may soon be owned by Google, a company that likes to have as much data on people as possible.

mobile

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?

What data does the company collect?

How does the company use this data?

Fitbit may share aggregated, de-identified data for analytics. This means that Fitbit can strip your data of personal information and then pool it with other user data.

How can you control your data?

You can choose not to sync the device with the app. You can request that data be deleted.

What is the company’s known track record of protecting users’ data?

Average

No known incidents in the last 2 years.

Can this product be used offline?

Yes

User-friendly privacy information?

Yes

Links to privacy information

Does this product meet our Minimum Security Standards?

Yes

Encryption

Yes

Fitbit protects data sent between your device and the Fitbit app with strong encryption.

Strong password

Yes

Fitbit devices work by being paired to a Fitbit account via the Fitbit mobile application. To create a Fitbit account, users are required to provide strong, complex, passwords during onboarding.

Security updates

Yes

Updates are pushed automatically when you pair your device with the app.

Manages vulnerabilities

Yes

Fitbit has a bug bounty program, which means that anyone who finds a security issue and discloses it responsibly may get paid.

Privacy policy

Yes

Fitbit's privacy information is written in fairly simple language. Google is also working on acquiring Fitbit, with the deal pending the decision of EU antitrust regulators at the end of 2020.