Tonal

Tonal Systems, Inc

Wi-Fi Bluetooth

Review date: Nov. 8, 2021

Mozilla researched 6 hours

Mozilla says

People voted: Very creepy

Tonal is a gym, a trainer, and a coach all rolled into one rather expensive, compact machine that fits on your wall. It has adjustable arms with cables where weights can be adjusted to up to 200 pounds for all manner of lifting and squatting and curling exercises. There's a built-in video screen where coaches guide you through strength, cardio, and yoga exercises. And it says it uses built-in artificial intelligence to learn your strength and adjust your workouts accordingly, based on your goals. Not gonna lie, Tonal sounds like the gym of the future. Especially if the future includes more global pandemics.

What could happen if something goes wrong?

While Tonal says they haven’t sold your personal information, they do say they can share the heck out of it. And they collect a lot of personal information — everything from name, location, gender, images and videos you might upload, information from your social media accounts if you connect them, and even any inferences they make about you based on all that personal information. They say they share that personal information with a number of third parties for things such as targeting you with ads and to “allow third parties to offer or provide you goods and services through the Equipment.”

This sort of large data collection and sharing is, unfortunately, not super unusual in the home workout equipment world. But it does stink that when you want to work out in the privacy of your own home, your workout isn’t really private. Being targeted with ads as you get your burn on, yeah, that’s probably not good for your body or your brain.

Tips to protect yourself

Set up Screen Lock on your Tonal machine to protect you from others accessing your machine and accounts.
Be very careful what third-party companies you consent to share your health data with. If you do decide to share your health data with another company, read their privacy policy to see how they protect, secure, and share or sell your data.

mobile

Can it snoop on me?

Camera

Device: Yes

App: Yes

Microphone

Device: No

App: No

Tracks location

Device: No

App: No

What can be used to sign up?

What data does the company collect?

How does the company use this data?

Tonal shares Personal Information with third-party ad networks to permit them to serve advertisements regarding goods and services that may be of interest to you when you access and use the Services and other websites or online services. In the last 12 month, Tonal shared audio/video data to the following third parties: Service Providers; Connected Applications; Social Media; Public Audience; Legal Authorities.

How can you control your data?

Tonal provides no retention details and mentions no ways to delete data for anyone but California residents.

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

Average

No known incidents in the last 3 years.

Can this product be used offline?

Yes

User-friendly privacy information?

Links to privacy information

Tonal Privacy Policy

Does this product meet our Minimum Security Standards?

Yes

Encryption

Yes

Strong password

Yes

Security updates

Yes

Manages vulnerabilities

Yes

Privacy policy

Yes

Does the product use AI?

Yes

Is this AI untrustworthy?

Can’t Determine

What kind of decisions does the AI make about you or for you?

Tonal’s full-body strength assessment sets the foundation for your strength training goals. From there, Tonal automatically sets the optimal weight for every movement so you’ll get the most out of every rep.