This will do great harm in markets where there are no protection for health data.<p>Health insurers in my country(India) are already discriminatory, top health insurers here denied me health insurance because I disclosed my disabilities[1] despite Govt. guidelines against blanket denial of policies for the disabled. This is pretty much the case for anyone who discloses their disability truthfully here[2][3].<p>This is because they're not keeping in sync with the progress in medical science, why should my orthopedic troubles be a risk factor for providing insurance to cover COVID-19 treatment?<p>Now with say health data from devices, they'll likely find more statistical data to deny coverage (with some obscure reason) or increase premium to many even if the applicant isn't sick and thereby denying a chance of health insurance coverage if they really get sick. Especially when an unqualified underwriter decides whether I should get a health insurance or not.<p>[1]<a href="https://abishekmuthian.com/insurers-are-putting-the-lives-of-sick-and-disabled-at-risk-during-covid-19-pandemic/" rel="nofollow">https://abishekmuthian.com/insurers-are-putting-the-lives-of...</a><p>[2]<a href="https://www.indiaspend.com/covid-19-insurers-are-denying-policies-to-disabled-despite-govt-strictures/" rel="nofollow">https://www.indiaspend.com/covid-19-insurers-are-denying-pol...</a><p>[3]<a href="https://twitter.com/pavinann/status/1339952358235631625" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/pavinann/status/1339952358235631625</a>
It's a little sus that CEPR titles this doc as a factual declaration when the first sentence is "The European Commission (alongside other regulators) is conducting an in-depth investigation of the Google/Fitbit deal." It calls into question the objectivity of the investigation when the announcement of the investigation is a statement of a conclusion they the EC is, one assumes, actively investigating.
"capable of harming consumers through personalisation of advertising and increasingly also by enabling
targeted product offerings" So this is going to be harmful because some health insurance company is only going to offer ads to people that walk > 10K steps a day?<p>They aren't showing any harm to consumers <i>at present</i>, just that sometime in the future, maybe, things could be harmful.
Very few people care about privacy which is great for OSINT practitioners. This Internet golden-age has made fox/sheeple tracking SO much easier, almost too much data available. That said MY Fitbit went straight into the garbage when Google bought them and since I didn't particularly trust Fitbit either when I bought the device, all Fitbit had on me for ID was a throw-away email and equally throw-away name.
I'm trying to centralize on Apple Health as one place for my info. Fitbit doesn't play well with Apple Health, presumably because they saw the Apple Watch as a competitor. I tried various apps that would "fix" syncing data but they would stop working. <a href="https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Fitbit-com-Dashboard/Syncing-with-Apple-s-Health-App/td-p/3059925" rel="nofollow">https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Fitbit-com-Dashboard/Syncing...</a> from 2018 has a thread on this but there are lots out there.<p>I bought a Garmin Instinct based on favorable mentions here a couple of weeks ago and I'm pretty happy with it. Garmin seems to be realistic about not competing with Apple directly.<p>I'm not excited about Garmin having any more info than they have to after they were hacked. <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/4/21353842/garmin-ransomware-attack-wearables-wastedlocker-evil-corp" rel="nofollow">https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/4/21353842/garmin-ransomware...</a>
Oh <i>come on</i> !<p>I was already pissed that Fitbit bought Pebble, crippled the Pebbles -<p>(yes, I know, there's an unofficial app store, some day I might even get around to looking into it)<p>- and pushed a "fitness" data-gathering update that I didn't ask nor cared for -<p>and now you're saying that this data is even going to be sent to Google?!<p>(Sigh, this is WhatsApp contacts => Facebook all over again...)
This is troubling. I've been a fitbit user for a few years. I've contemplated hard between an Apple Watch and Fitbit. I decided to stay with the Fitbit for a few reasons:<p>* Longer Battery Life<p>* Sleep Tracking<p>* Smaller device on wrist with the Charge 4 vs Apple Watch.<p>Can people suggest alternatives to Fitbit? My favorite feature is the sleep tracking (but who knows how accurate it is). Does Garmin or Apple have comparable features to Fitbit, especially with sleep and battery life?
Obligatory reminder: Gadgetbridge [1] is an Android mobile application without network permission, acting as a companion for your smart weareables. Your data about you stays yours. Your conversations forwarded as notifications aren't going anywhere else.<p>[1]
Blog: <a href="https://blog.freeyourgadget.org/" rel="nofollow">https://blog.freeyourgadget.org/</a>
Homepage: <a href="http://gadgetbridge.org" rel="nofollow">http://gadgetbridge.org</a> /
Codeberg repo: <a href="https://codeberg.org/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge" rel="nofollow">https://codeberg.org/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge</a>
Maybe, but since we don't have currently good way to use our health data for health purposes, this might be good development. They will provide a way to sync which others will emulate and it will be one standard.<p>Should Google and others be regulated, oh yeah.