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Fitbit $149.95 -$169.95
Fitbit Charge 3 Tracker
Review Date 10/23/19
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, 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.
Minimum Security Standards
Five basic steps every company should take to protect consumer privacy. Learn more.
Overall Security Rating
4.5/5
Encryption
Fitbit protects data sent between your device and the Fitbit app with encryption.
Security updates
Updates are pushed automatically when you pair your device with the companion app.
Strong password
Wearable devices run over a secure Bluetooth connection from a companion app. In order to use the app, an account with a strong password is required. Fitbit smartwatches are PIN protected to secure Fitbit Pay transactions.
Manages vulnerabilities
Fitbit has a bug bounty program, which means that anyone who finds a security issue and discloses it responsibly may get paid.
Privacy policy
Does it have a privacy policy?
Can it snoop on me?
Camera
Device: No
|
App: Yes
Microphone
Device: No
|
App: Yes
Tracks Location
Device: Yes
|
App: Yes
How does it handle privacy?
How does it share data?
Fitbit can share aggregated, de-identified data with anyone. This means that Fitbit strips your data of personal information and then pools it with other user data and can share it with anyone.
Can you delete your data?
Collects biometrics data?
It collects data about your heart rate, activity, and sleep patterns.
User friendly privacy info?
Fitbit's privacy information is written in fairly simple language.
Links to privacy information
😮
What could happen if something went wrong
Fitbit does a good job with privacy and security and 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 completely aware you are strapping on device that tracks your location, heart rate, sleep patterns, and more. That's a lot of personal information gathered in one place. Oh, and news recently broke that Google is buying Fitbit. What does that mean? We don't know quite yet, but it does seem that all that sensitive data Fitbit collects will now be owned by Google, a company that likes to have as much data on people as possible.
How to contact the company
Updates
We read your wearable tech's privacy policy so you don't have to
What you agreed to - GDPR edition. Below, you'll find a quick intro on who fairs best in this new world of privacy policy. You'll then find break downs of a select number of company terms and services and privacy policies - complete with highlights and links for your perusal.
How to make sure your fitness trackers are secure
Some tips for keeping your tracking data safe
A Google Fitbit means new possibilities and questions for the smartwatch
Google's Fitbit acquisition will lead to a new Google watch on the horizon. But will Fitbit users get their sensitive data pulled into a bigger ecosystem?
Google is buying Fitbit: now what?
Google is buying Fitbit and the reasons why are both simple and complicated. It’s the kind of big acquisition Google has done before (more money than YouTube, less than Nest or DoubleClick), but this one seems to have struck a particular nerve. My Twitter replies are currently filled with Fitbit customers promising to go buy Apple Watches right now.
