To just let google have my health data?

[Portoagain]

I have a fitbit and learned today that it has been acquired by google (back in 2019 apparently!) and that all users must migrate to a google app by February if they want to keep using their fitbit.

My initial response to this was ‘hell to the no, google are not getting their paws on my health and fitness data and I’ll get an old fashioned pedometer!

And then I became a bit depressed about it all, tbh. I mean is there any point in fighting? Apple and Google probably already know everything worth knowing about me already tbf. Maybe I should save myself the strain and just bow to the inevitable, however much I hate it, because holding out isn’t going to change anything ultimately, is it.

So AIBU?

YABU= I need to fight for my privacy!
YANBU= give up, it’s the price we pay to live in the modern world.

I have a similar dilemma! Currently my fit bit is sitting in a drawer as I don’t want it to know everything I do. If there was a private option I would do so go for that…

Every step I take, every move I make my phone/watch is watching me. Yes, like the stalker Sting clearly was. It knows when I sleep, probably knows my banking passwords and all other passwords, what health issues I google, what I watch, what I buy to eat, where I go through google maps and my card use, it knows what I've bought everyone in my family and friend circle for Christmas and Pinterest frequently seems to already read my mind without me saying or typing anything in at all.

Think the privacy ship sailed about 10 years ago.

It’s a bit late to worry about privacy. If you have an iPhone, Apple will have your health data anyway. Mine syncs with my phone. What difference does it make if Google has it too? All it will know is I need to get out and exercise more as I haven’t hit my steps target for a week due to illness.

yeah, guess you’re right 😒I hate it!

The question I’d ask is what are you afraid of? Is it that someone can use that data? Or sell the data? What’s personally identifiable about your steps / sleep patterns etc? What is the difference to you vs your search history for instance where you would ask more personal questions?

IMO smaller companies would be more risky in terms of data because they’ve not got the same budgets as your big multinationals to invest in encryption etc. bigger companies would also care to put those measures in place more so than smaller, as they are more in the public eye and would come under a lot of scrutiny should this become compromised. GDPR would also lead to huge penalties, vs a smaller company so they take more care to be compliant