Warning: *Privacy Not Included with this product
SoulCycle At-Home Bike
SoulCycle, that somewhat cult-like biking, music, mental experience widely popular before the pandemic, hopes to keep you pumping and churning on their bikes with their pricey at-home connected bike. According to their FAQ, a $40 monthly membership gets you "access to the bike" as well as their Equinox+ mobile app with its streaming fitness classes. The bike comes with a large touchscreen to get yelled at, uh, we mean motivated, by a variety of instructors while jamming to a variety of music. And according to SoulCycle, the bike is "sturdy AF" so no worries when you clip in those special biking shoes of yours that you'll tip over from all the exertion. Here's hoping they've gotten a grip on those reported fat-shaming allegations from their instructors. Anyone climbing on a bike for a workout needs praise, not shame!
What could happen if something goes wrong?
In real life, before the pandemic, SoulCycle had a reputation as a company that wasn’t exactly known for its strong moral compass. Now that SoulCycle has moved a lot of its business online with its $2,500 connected exercise bike and $40-a-month app full of workouts with SoulCycle instructors, what does that questionable moral compass mean when it comes to your privacy?
While SoulCycle says they don’t “generally sell” personal information (vague terms in privacy policies are a red flag for us), they do say they collect and share a good deal of personal information. They say they collect standard types of personal information like name, birthday, gender, location, and workout preferences. They also say they collect information about you from data brokers, social networks, advertising partners, and publicly available sources. So it seems SoulCycle likes to gather as much information on you as they can to do things like sell you more products, target you with ads, and even something we don’t usually see in a privacy policy, “To protect us and others.” Again, those vaguely worded privacy policy clauses are a red flag.
All in all, what SoulCycle does isn’t great. Buying data from data brokers feels pretty scummy to us, always. It also doesn’t seem to be super unusual in the home workout equipment world. The biggest difference with SoulCycle is they have that questionable moral reputation to live with.
Tips to protect yourself
- Be very careful what third party companies you consent to share you health data with. If you do decided to share your health data with another company, read their privacy policy to see how they protect, secure, and share or sell your data.
- Once you do not use a device any more, make sure to request deletion of all your data
Can it snoop on me?
Camera
Device: No
App: No
Microphone
Device: Yes
App: No
Tracks location
Device: Can’t Determine
App: Yes
What can be used to sign up?
Yes
Phone
No
Third-party account
No
What data does the company collect?
Personal
Name, email, address, date of birth, gender, photos and videos
Body related
Social
Contact list
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?
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
Got a comment? Let us hear it.