Looking for a smart fitness watch that still looks good on your wrist when you're dressed up and fancy? Fossil's smartwatch runs Google's Wear OS and tracks all the activities, monitors all your bodily functions, gives you contactless pay with Google Pay, has an always display, and lets you answer calls from your wrist with a built-in speaker. It does all that and looks good too.
What could happen if something goes wrong?
If you're going to drop $300 on a fancy watch, you probably want to know that watch won't be defunct in a year. Fossil's watch uses Google's Wear OS. It seems Google hasn't pushed a single major update to Wear OS in about two years. We found many users on Reddit complaining they weren't receiving regular updates. Fossil does say they do not use data relating to your health for marketing purposes, which is good. Fossil does not sell personal information, which is also good. Aggregated and de-identified data may be shared with third parties. This is generally OK, 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: Yes
App: No
Tracks location
Device: Yes
App: Yes
What can be used to sign up?
N/A
Phone
N/A
Third-party account
N/A
What data does the company collect?
Personal
Name, email, date of birth, gender
Body related
Heart rate, movement, sleep data, menstrual cycle, and more
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?
Fossil Group's, Misfit.com website was comprised by a malicious code which enabled unauthorized third-party access to information pertaining to Misfit.com website users, including names, telephone numbers, addresses, email addresses, username, password, and payment card information.
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
Fossil Gen 5 watch owners are complaining on Reddit about receiving infrequent security updates.
Manages vulnerabilities
The software on the Fossil Gen 5 watch is Google's WearOS. Google has a security reporting system.
Privacy policy
Does the product use AI?
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?
Dive Deeper
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Fossil Misfit.com Data Breach Notification (PDF)
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People Keep Asking Google if Wear OS is Dead, Which is BadKellen
Comments
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