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Fitbit's 150B hours of heart data

finance.yahoo.com

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Re: Fitbit's 150B hours of heart data

#11

Post by daniel_iversen »

saagarjha wrote: post #4

> modern smartwatches and fitness bands can track your pulse continuously, day and night, for months. Imagine what you could learn if you collected all that data from tens of millions of people! Please no. Surely nobody thought collecting health data from all their users was a good idea, right? > That’s exactly what Fitbit (FIT) has done. It has now logged 150 billion hours’ worth of heart-rate data. From tens of mil…

This large scale data analytics is probable the best (or at least usually fastest) way to solve the worlds big health challenges I would guess. Nobody forced anyone to wear a smart watch or health tracker. I for one thinks the world is slightly better off because of companies like Fitbit!

Re: Fitbit's 150B hours of heart data

#12

Post by themmes »

> Europeans drink alot of wine. Just sayin’

I really wish scientist would stop “just sayin’” things like this. With all this value in data and possible contributions to the understanding of our vascular system, I find it quite dangerous to counter that with the suggestion that drinking alcohol is a healthy option to reduce stress.

Re: Fitbit's 150B hours of heart data

#13

Post by solveit »

saagarjha wrote: post #4

> modern smartwatches and fitness bands can track your pulse continuously, day and night, for months. Imagine what you could learn if you collected all that data from tens of millions of people! Please no. Surely nobody thought collecting health data from all their users was a good idea, right? > That’s exactly what Fitbit (FIT) has done. It has now logged 150 billion hours’ worth of heart-rate data. From tens of mil…

>"Anonymized". Just with the data posted above, it seems like it'd be pretty easy to correlate the data to a person.

Yep. Location at 3am tells you where they live, and you're basically done already.

Re: Fitbit's 150B hours of heart data

#14

Post by Tharkun »

themmes wrote: post #12

> Europeans drink alot of wine. Just sayin’ I really wish scientist would stop “just sayin’” things like this. With all this value in data and possible contributions to the understanding of our vascular system, I find it quite dangerous to counter that with the suggestion that drinking alcohol is a healthy option to reduce stress.

I don't think anyone was implying that alcohol was a healthy stress reducing option. I assume they were referring to the oft cited myth that red wine has cardiovascular benefits.

Re: Fitbit's 150B hours of heart data

#15

Post by saagarjha »

daniel_iversen wrote: post #11
saagarjha wrote: post #4

> modern smartwatches and fitness bands can track your pulse continuously, day and night, for months. Imagine what you could learn if you collected all that data from tens of millions of people! Please no. Surely nobody thought collecting health data from all their users was a good idea, right? > That’s exactly what Fitbit (FIT) has done. It has now logged 150 billion hours’ worth of heart-rate data. From tens of mil…

This large scale data analytics is probable the best (or at least usually fastest) way to solve the worlds big health challenges I would guess. Nobody forced anyone to wear a smart watch or health tracker. I for one thinks the world is slightly better off because of companies like Fitbit!

> Nobody forced anyone to wear a smart watch or health tracker.

I think this is a dangerous mindset to have, assuming that just because someone's bought a product, that gives the manufacturer license to collect data on my health habits. I would be much more receptive to an opt-in study.

Re: Fitbit's 150B hours of heart data

#17

Post by saagarjha »

tomerico wrote: post #10
saagarjha wrote: post #4

> modern smartwatches and fitness bands can track your pulse continuously, day and night, for months. Imagine what you could learn if you collected all that data from tens of millions of people! Please no. Surely nobody thought collecting health data from all their users was a good idea, right? > That’s exactly what Fitbit (FIT) has done. It has now logged 150 billion hours’ worth of heart-rate data. From tens of mil…

While I definitely agree that there are large privacy concerns when collecting health related data, I disagree with the sentiment that it's always a bad idea. There is a huge net benefit to modernizing medicine and getting to an AI that is more accurate then doctors. Creating those datasets is a leap towards that direction.

It's not always a bad idea, but collecting data by default in a way that doesn't seem all that anonymized isn't great.

Re: Fitbit's 150B hours of heart data

#18

Post by saiya-jin »

tomerico wrote: post #10
saagarjha wrote: post #4

> modern smartwatches and fitness bands can track your pulse continuously, day and night, for months. Imagine what you could learn if you collected all that data from tens of millions of people! Please no. Surely nobody thought collecting health data from all their users was a good idea, right? > That’s exactly what Fitbit (FIT) has done. It has now logged 150 billion hours’ worth of heart-rate data. From tens of mil…

While I definitely agree that there are large privacy concerns when collecting health related data, I disagree with the sentiment that it's always a bad idea. There is a huge net benefit to modernizing medicine and getting to an AI that is more accurate then doctors. Creating those datasets is a leap towards that direction.

Sorry to be impolite but... f*ck that.

If they want true anonymity, then remove at least location part of this (or say with 50km precision). Make it all optional with clear description what user opt for. And have independent yearly audit that confirms this on their core databases.

Anything less that that, and their motives are dirty as stale sewage waters. Why it seems that every company out there is only after as-much-data-as-possible from our lives, ideally all lives on the planet, to somehow monetize them in future? And ideally get bought by some big corp for few billions for owners.

Yet another useless thing I am happy to pass (and I am fitness nerd, but never saw any appeal in these measuring devices - work out hard, have fun, keep doing it often and you will be exceptionally healthy)

Re: Fitbit's 150B hours of heart data

#19

Post by koliber »

I wonder what they mean by "optimal", which this article seems to be mentioning a lot.

It seems that they are referring to a maximum or a minimum in the curve, and calling it optimal. It seems to offer the hypothesis that a low resting heart rate (RHR) is good, and then runs with it. It does not explain how it arrived at that conclusion.

It feels that they saw that most people at a given age have a resting heart rate of X and therefore they conclude that this is optimal. However, I wonder if people with a lower-than-average or higher-than-average have a longer life expectancy. I understand that FitBit data would not show that, as the age-at-death seems to be one of the few data points they don't have :).

Re: Fitbit's 150B hours of heart data

#20

Post by Zarath »

daniel_iversen wrote: post #11
saagarjha wrote: post #4

> modern smartwatches and fitness bands can track your pulse continuously, day and night, for months. Imagine what you could learn if you collected all that data from tens of millions of people! Please no. Surely nobody thought collecting health data from all their users was a good idea, right? > That’s exactly what Fitbit (FIT) has done. It has now logged 150 billion hours’ worth of heart-rate data. From tens of mil…

This large scale data analytics is probable the best (or at least usually fastest) way to solve the worlds big health challenges I would guess. Nobody forced anyone to wear a smart watch or health tracker. I for one thinks the world is slightly better off because of companies like Fitbit!

The world may be better off, but certainly not because they massively collect biometric data, but because their product encourages exercise.
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