Garmin Index Smart Scale

When your *Privacy Not Included researcher wanted to get a fitness tracking smartwatch to see how stressed out reading privacy policies made her, Garmin is what she went with. Because Garmin seems to do one of the best jobs handling the privacy and security of all the personal data fitness trackers collect, at least according to their really not that stressful privacy policy. The same thing applies to their smart scale too.

Here’s what this privacy researcher really likes about Garmin. Yes, Garmin's smart scale can collect a whole lot of personal information through the device and on the Garmin Connect app. That’s what smart scales are designed to do, that's why we want them. Garmin says they can collect data like email address, device information, location, and all that body-related data like how much you weigh, your BMI, and more. Here's the thing. Garmin might collect lots of data, but they then do a pretty good job, as far as we can tell, of respecting it, protecting it, and not trying to make money off sharing or selling it. Gasp! What a wonderful idea.

Your “sharing with others” user settings in the Garmin Connect app are set to “private” by default. Which is great. You can choose to share your data with contacts if you wish, but you have to change your privacy settings to do that. Good work Garmin. Garmin says they don't sell data and they don't share your personal information for advertising purposes with third parties without your consent. They ask you to opt-in rather than opt-out of consent to receive marketing communications from them. And their privacy policy is actually pretty good at laying out what data they collect, clearly explaining why they collect it, and how it is used.

Garmin also seems to do a pretty good job securing the personal information they collect. However, they did suffer that very public ransomware attack in 2020. Ransomware attacks suck and it seems no company is safe from them these days. Good news though, no user data was actually compromised in that attack, so, once more, good work Garmin.

Garmin has been on our Best Of list for a number of years. And we're pleased to say, in 2023, it seems they've gotten even better (which is amazing when so many other companies are getting worse). We were very happy to see that the one gripe we had with Garmin in the past -- the fact that they didn't clearly state they grant all people, regardless of where they live and the privacy laws they live under, the same right to delete their data -- got fixed in 2023.

Garmin actually reached out to us about that and when we pointed out that they didn't clearly state that, they said they would take a look. And now we see this lovely line on their Data Protection Rights page, "Depending on where you reside, you may have rights under applicable laws, subject to conditions and restrictions provided in those laws. Regardless of where you reside, you can access, correct, export, or delete your personal data (including deleting your entire Garmin account) by visiting our Account Management Center." Great work Garmin! This is the kind of care about privacy for everyone, not just the people you're required to grant privacy rights to, that we LOVE to see. (Also, a note to toot our own horn a bit: This is what happen when we point out the issues we see to companies -- sometimes the good ones make change.)

Is your intrepid privacy researcher happy with her decision to get a Garmin fitness tracker? What’s the worst that could happen with your Garmin smart scale? Well, hopefully nothing, but do beware if you link your data to other third party apps like Strava and MyFitnessPal. Those apps come with their own privacy policies and every time you share your personal information with someone else you increase the vulnerability of that personal information.