Some users say they're getting rid of Fitbit because they don't trust Google

Classic example of an article in search of a movement.<p>Take a handful of tweets that share an opinion and write an article that makes it seem like there&#x27;s a mass exodus.<p>It&#x27;s ok, you don&#x27;t need anything more than a handful of tweets to back your claim.<p>Yes, <i>some</i> people are privacy conscious and are going to stop using Fitbit but how many are actually doing it? A lot? A few?<p>Who knows. I&#x27;m sure author has no clue but that won&#x27;t stop them from writing this empty article.

After having worked at Google, it is the only company I actually do trust with my data. (But I am also ok with them using it to customize my experience, and even target ads)<p>Their internal privacy controls are extensive.<p>As a human, it is nearly impossible to access someone&#x27;s data, even when debugging code&#x2F;ML models&#x2F;etc.<p>And when you do need to, it requires exhaustive oversight&#x2F;approval, and _everything_ is audited.

I bought a Garmin the day Fitbit sold out and haven&#x27;t touched the Fitbit since. I&#x27;m very happy with the switch, the Garmin (Vivosmart 4) app and device are actually better than Fitbit&#x27;s on almost every account, so that&#x27;s a double win :)<p>The only unfortunate consequence is that Garmin&#x27;s import service only imports very coarse data from your Fitbit export, so all detailed historic records are lost unless you manually dig through your Fitbit export files. I hope Garmin will still provide a 100% complete importer in the future.

&quot;Google could know which medications I take, and what any medical diagnosis&#x27;s I have,&quot; Carpenter said. &quot;It makes me feel sick to my stomach.&quot;<p>Google already knows what diagnoses people have, simply because people have been searching their symptoms. Remember when Google several years ago boasted about predicting epidemics faster than the health care system, based on searches?

I had recently begun considering a smart watch to replace my original Pebble, and was considering Fitbit, but this is exactly why I won&#x27;t be going with them. I&#x27;m slowly De-Googling and spreading my digital life across multiple providers instead of being at the mercy of a single one. I don&#x27;t expect my total privacy exposure will be significantly less, but it&#x27;s more about not having my email, media purchases, phone integration, and more all tied to just Google.

I’ve owned&#x2F;own 4 Fitbit products and was planning my change before this news. The privacy thing is an issue but compared to your phone, it’s pretty small potatoes. The issue that really irks is the products seem to take software updates that make them worse, often with bad bugs. Like my ionic will vibrate when a phone call comes in and continue to until the call ends. Bands wear out too quickly and are expensive to replace. The watches themselves seem to die at an almost predictable rate. Then the price is sort of in this sweet spot of being inexpensive enough to not hurt you but expensive enough to be frustrating when it’s not right.<p>I like the concept but I think Fitbit doesn’t have enough data points to be really useful and then the execution is mediocre. Maybe google will be good for them but I think I’ll switch

27 million active Fitbit users at end of 2018.<p>&quot;Several&quot; <i>say</i> they are getting rid of the devices because of a lack of trust in Google. How many constitutes &quot;several&quot; is left for the reader to calculate. 27? 270? 2,700?<p>Poor journalism.

Independent tech in the 2010s is like independent banking in the 2000s. You find a decent partner and 6 months later you roll over and see BigCorp beside you.<p>I struggle to see how this even is consistent with the spirit of the Fitbit terms-- the purchase of the company transfers ownership of user data, which Fitbit assured customers it would never do. Time for some common sense concerning this consumer-unfriendly trend.

The average Joe that uses Fitbit probably doesn&#x27;t even know that this transaction is happening. Sometimes we think people read the same news we read and understand things the same way we understand them. That&#x27;s definitely not the case.

For me the change is ownership was just the last straw, their incredibly crappy app and the difficulty in downloading my data was a more significant factor.

For an anecdotal story, my finacee just went from a Fitbit to a Soleuos Fitness tracker. The change in ownership was one reason, but the reason was that the one she had broke 3 times within the first year of her having it. The first two times she sent it back, and the third time she gave up on it and didn&#x27;t want to buy another Fitbit.<p>But I think seeing how Nest turned out is a great reason for not wanting to buy a Fitbit after being bought my Google (forcing tighter integration to Google, depreciating APIs to make it useful for other integrations, no really new innovation).

Ideally I would prefer a SmartWatch that has AsteroidOS [0] preinstalled that on the software-level is free from Google.<p>Such a watch might be very difficult to obtain. Even by flashing existing Android Wear devices not only it requires several steps, but the unfortunate lack of apps might be a big turn-off for many people.<p>Either that or my money will be going to an Apple Watch.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;asteroidos.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;asteroidos.org&#x2F;</a>

Pro tip for Fitbit users that want a great alternative:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.withings.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.withings.com&#x2F;</a>

Fitbit users are getting rid of the devices because previously all the services were bundled with the cost of the physical device but now they want you to buy the device <i>and</i> subscribe to Fitbit Premium.<p>Source: first-hand contact with Fitbit users in the Real World

I used to have a fitbit, it broke within the warranty time and sold the replacement rather than actually keep using it. Since then I&#x27;ve been thinking of getting a new one, but the Google acquisition instead prompted me to have my account deleted.

Bought a device that uploads data to the internet, surprised when it&#x27;s not used for their benefit.<p>Stop buying devices that require internet access, you have a supercomputer in your pocket that they can connect to. And a home network.

I basically use Fitbit for sleep tracking more than any other feature. And I used to be a loyal Jawbone Up customer (yes, replacing it every few months when the band snapped) for the same reason.<p>This may be off topic since it has nothing to do with this acquisition, but does anyone know of a equivalent or superior sleep tracker that you wear on your arm?

This is fine, people can do what they want, but they&#x27;re deluding themselves if they think small companies are perfect stewards of data. How exactly do these people know that Fitbit wasn&#x27;t already selling their data using it in a way they don&#x27;t approve of?

<i>&gt; Google explicitly said in the deal announcement that it won’t sell their personal or health data.</i><p>That’s not all. Google also said they will not use your data to target ads. In a forward looking statement about the deal. That’s significant.

For what it&#x27;s worth: I switched from Fitbit to Garmin about a year back, but hearing about the Google purchase actually made me log back in to my old Fitbit account and request deletion of all my data.

I don&#x27;t think Google cares about this relative handful of people. They will keep moving on and 90% of society will go with them.<p>I often wonder what will happen to the few individuals who are willing to push tech&#x2F;privacy issues so far that they will be okay with being left behind. In 50 years will we have communities of amish-like people who choose to continue living as if it&#x27;s 2005?

I saw some while killing time at an electronics store. My thought train went something like:<p>Uh, nice. Oh wait. Fitbit? Wasn’t it just acquired by google? Ah I need to get off gmail too..

And yet they use Android daily. :D

I&#x27;m using a Fitbit and I&#x27;m thinking about just uninstalling the app.<p>The watch is set up like I want it to, it can show my heartbeat during training, the steps of the day and the time. Obviously without the app and data synchronisation I will not get weekly fitness reports, but I don&#x27;t really care about those.<p>Maybe my next watch will be a dumb one again. Didn&#x27;t get that much out of a smart watch as I expected.

You might be able to estimate how many users are jumping ship by looking at the resale market (say on eBay) and if it’s spiked recently.

I&#x27;m just an n=1, but I got rid of my two Fitbits (returned to Costco as they were still within 90 days) primarily for this reason.

Personally I stopped using Fitbit a long time ago because the band came unglued and it fell apart.

I find this very naive. The op is not trusting Google because someone told them not to trust Google. They were trusting Fitbit because nobody told them not to.<p>How did Fitbit make their money to pay for the online services? Only from selling devices? You really believe that?

not a single statistic or data point. this is really garbage content

Are there any good alternatives out there? (leaving Apple&#x2F;Google products aside).

They should probably send a GDPA request to delete all their data as well.

Ordered a Garmin few days back for the same reasons.

I am wearing xiaomi band. [trolling] What could be a problem?

<i>some </i>say

Fitbit is a terrible product. Enjoy paying smart watch prices for a tiny screen that tells you your heart rate.