I found out my fitness tracker data is being sold to my insurance company

Last month I logged into my health app to check my sleep stats and noticed a weird disclaimer I'd never read before. Turns out my step count and heart rate data from the last 2 years has been shared with my health insurer through a third party. I found this buried in a privacy policy update from March 2023 that I must have clicked through without reading. Has anyone else actually dug into where their wearable data ends up I'm thinking about switching to a dumb watch.

3 comments

3 Comments

the_leo13d ago

Little correction there @jakeb81, the Casio F91W battery lasts about 3 years tops, not 7 (unless they figured out time travel since I bought mine). Still a solid watch though, I switched to an F-91W myself after reading the same fine print in my fitness app. The real trick is pairing it with a dumb phone dumb phone and using a paper calendar for all your tracking needs.

the_christopher15d ago

Yeah my Garmin was doing the same thing without me realizing it. I got a similar notice in May and immediately bought a Casio F91W for like 15 bucks and never looked back. The battery lasts 7 years and nobody is selling my step count to anyone. I still use my phone for occasional fitness tracking but only in airplane mode with all the permissions turned off. It's honestly kind of freeing not having a smartwatch buzzing me all day.

jakeb8115d ago

The Casio F91W is a smart move, @the_christopher. I did the same thing after my Fitbit started acting weird about data. Switched to a Timex Ironman for about 30 bucks and haven't worn a smartwatch in two years. The peace of mind is worth more than any vibrating notification. Running your phone in airplane mode for fitness tracking is key too, keeps all that data local instead of floating around somewhere. I just track my runs with a basic stopwatch and write down my times in a notebook now. Feels like going back to basics but I sleep better without a gadget on my wrist.