
Amazon Halo View
Last year Amazon came out with their kinda creepy sounding Halo fitness tracker. It was just a band with lots of sensors and microphones. This year they've added a version of the Halo called Halo View that comes with a built-in screen. Yay! And it even seems to cost less than the Halo. Weird. Well, maybe not so weird when you learn that Amazon also removed the creepy microphone that lives on the original Halo Band used for "tone of voice analysis." It still tracks things like heart rate, steps, and sleep. And that creepy tone of voice analysis is still available in the Halo app using the microphone on your phone. Still, we'll give Amazon some credit for creating a fitness tracker without microphones built-in. That feels like a step forward toward a little better privacy. And it's nice they put a little note on the product page talking about how seriously they take your privacy. With everything this device collects, we sure hope that's true. This fitness tracker also requires a $4 a month subscription to access all features.
Que pourrait-il se passer en cas de problème ?
We do want to give Amazon credit. They took the microphones out when they made the Halo View (their Halo Band still has built in microphones). And while they said this wasn’t for privacy reasons, it’s a step forward for privacy. Users can still choose to use the app and microphone on their phone to listen for the tone of voice analysis, but it’s not built into the fitness tracker you wear on your arm. Because we like to see steps made to protect users’ privacy, we’ve decided to not give Amazon’s Halo View our *Privacy Not Included warning label.
Still, there are some things consumers should be aware of. The problem for us isn't that all the data this device collects will be kept insecurely, Amazon generally does a good job securing your data. The problem is what Amazon can potentially use all this data for. While Amazon states that it currently does not use Halo health data for marketing, product recommendations, or advertising, the Halo is still collecting a lot of personal body-related information about you--including potentially listening to what you say and measuring your tone if you chose to enable that feature in the app on your phone. And those images in your underwear they ask you to upload, yeah, those too. What can give you insights into your health, could also potentially give others information about things like your emotional state while you are looking at something, how attracted you are to someone, or even if you've been drinking. That level of personal information is not something we want Amazon--or any other tech company--potentially knowing.
Amazon proudly states they are not in the business of selling your personal information to others, which is good. However, a good question to ask is, why would Amazon need to sell your data when they have their own advertising and retail juggernaut to use your data to sell you more stuff? Because Amazon is in the business of selling you more stuff. This means Amazon collects a whole lot of data on you -- records of your TV viewing habits, shopping habits, Alexa search requests, the music you stream, the podcasts you listen to, when you turn your lights on and off, when you lock your doors, and on and on and on.
What’s the worst that could happen? Well, you could decide to turn on Amazon Halo’s tone policing features in the app and they could listen to you all day long and determine that if you’re a man, your tone was “opinionated” and if you’re a woman your tone was “dismissive” or “condescending” and you could believe that and as a woman, think you should speak up less and as a man think you should speak up more, and hey, that is not at all what the world needs right now. Or, maybe someday in the future Amazon could decide to change their privacy policies and use that health data to try and sell you more stuff. That wouldn’t be cool and we don’t know that Amazon would ever do that (we sure hope not!). The question really comes down to, how much do you trust Amazon?
Conseils pour vous protéger
- During set-up of your device, you can choose to protect your Halo health data by verifying a One-Time Passcode via your mobile telephone number or email address.
- Be aware of sharing data with third parties! With third parties, different privacy policies (if there any) apply. You can stop sharing data with a third party at any time by delinking their account directly from the Halo app.
- If you choose to share personally identifiable Halo health data with select third party content providers via Settings in the Halo app, the customer will receive a clear and explicit notice before sharing. Before they link, Amazon will surface screens to them in the app where they can review the categories of data that will be shared with the third party and review information from the third party regarding ways they might use their data.
Ce produit peut-il m’espionner ?
Caméra
Appareil : Non
Application : Non
Microphone
Appareil : Non
Application : Oui
Piste la géolocalisation
Appareil : Non
Application : Oui
Que peut-on utiliser pour s’inscrire ?
Adresse e-mail
Oui
Téléphone
Non
Compte tiers
Non
Quelles données l’entreprise collecte-t-elle ?
Personnelles
Name, email, phone number
Corporelles
Fitness metrics, body fat composition, sleep, and tone of voice, skin temperature, motion, and heart rate
Sociales
Comment l’entreprise utilise-t-elle les données ?
Comment pouvez-vous contrôler vos données ?
Quel est l’historique de l’entreprise en matière de protection des données des utilisateurs et utilisatrices ?
In August 2020, security researchers from Check Point pointed out a flaw in Amazon's Alexa smart home devices that could have allowed hackers access to personal information and conversation history. Amazon promptly fixed the bug.
In October 2020, Amazon fired an employee for leaking customer email addresses to an unnamed third party.
In October 2019, Forbes reported that Amazon employees were listening to Amazon Cloud Cam recording, to train its AI algorythm.
In April 2019, it was revealed that thousands of employees, many of whom are contract workers and some not even directly employed by Amazon, had access to both voice and text transcripts of Alexa interactions.
In 2018, Amazon's Echo Dot device recorded private conversation and sent it to random contact. The recording consisted of 1,700 audio files.
Ce produit peut-il être utilisé hors connexion ?
Informations relatives à la vie privée accessibles et compréhensibles ?
Liens vers les informations concernant la vie privée
Ce produit respecte-t-il nos critères élémentaires de sécurité ?
Chiffrement
All Amazon Halo health data is encrypted in transit, including going to and from the cloud or between the customers’ Halo Band and the Halo app on their phone. Amazon Halo health data is also encrypted while being stored securely in the Amazon cloud. In addition, Amazon Halo health data is stored securely on the customer’s smartphone, including using available full disc encryption and any other protections provided by their phone’s manufacturer. You can learn more about Amazon Halo privacy features here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GL99TQL4B7ADPBDH. Additionally, the published privacy white paper on Amazon Halo (link available on the Amazon Halo privacy page: https://customerdocumentation.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Halo+Privacy+Whitepaper.pdf) provides additional technical details about privacy and security for Amazon Halo.
Mot de passe robuste
Halo View customers have the option to set up a PIN on-device as an added layer of privacy and security. The PIN is required to be 6 numbers, selected from 0-4 numerical characters. If device PIN protection is enabled, customers will be prompted to enter a PIN when they remove their Halo View from their wrist. By locking their device when customers aren’t wearing Halo View, the PIN helps prevent others from seeing information on their screen, such as their Halo health data and text message notifications.
Mises à jour de sécurité
Gestion des vulnérabilités
Amazon has a bug bounty program, which means that anyone who finds a security issue and discloses it responsibly may get paid. Security researchers can report a vulnerability here.
Politique de confidentialité
Cette IA est-elle non digne de confiance ?
Quel genre de décisions l’IA prend-elle à votre sujet ou pour vous ?
The feature of the Amazon Halo is AI-powered health to track your wellness (body fat, activity levels, sleep, and tone of voice/emotions.) The AI will also rate your tone for “positivity” and “energy.” The model associates those emotional ratings with vocal qualities like pitch, intensity, tempo, and rhythm.
The question has been raised about bias in Amazon Halo algorithms.
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