Is there some alternative firmware for fitbit devices that makes them log into a self-hosted service?
Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B
371–380 of 784 posts
Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B
#372Earlier quoted context omitted.
> have yet to find a manufacturer that takes privacy seriously What's wrong with Apple then?
Whatever device I have should transfer data only to computers that are under my control. It might be possible to keep the data local, but it is likely to be neither easy, nor easy to NOT end up accidentally linking it to iCloud. Where I personally don't have a problem with those data living on Apple's servers, parent obviously does.
I'm under the impression that health data is not uploaded to iCloud or backed up by iCloud backup. What makes you think otherwise?
Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B
#373It's become clear your data is not safe no matter which company you choose to do business with, considering virtually all companies are in jeopardy of being purchased by bigger companies which don't value your data privacy. Perhaps it's time the US enacts laws similar to GDPR.
Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B
#374Google makes 80% of revenue from ads. It covers the entire web with adsense/adwords, records anything you search, has users login to chrome, scans gmail for purchase history, tracks your gps location and where you live and work with your commute + waze.. plus much more through android. It has microphones in homes and knows about all your iot devices with nest, it knows about any other online accounts you have because…
> detailed health data that users willingly provide.
I'm skeptical that an accerometer on your wrist and maybe an optical heartrate monitor can really provide detailed health data.
Honestly, most of the "personal health monitoring" consumer device companies are selling bullshit. They don't have purpose-built devices that are capable of monitoring specific health parameters as you sleep or as you work, they have a pile of "these particular electromechanical / electro-optical sensors happen to be cheap enough and low power enough to put in a wristwatch" and are hoping that they can gain insight by throwing machine learning at the problem. In that sense, perhaps this is a perfect match, since that's what the hype-chasers at Google/X seem to love, but sometimes the best signal you can find just isn't all that useful or interesting.
Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B
#375Earlier quoted context omitted.
Happened to a company I started working at. Long story short, I joined as an engineer when one 15 year old based company that was clearly still running like it was 1995 bought a lean tech startup with smart/focus people and proceeded to impose its really inefficient, old culture onto the newly acquired folk. Lots of clash, tons of shit talking, and people leaving left and right. The giant company ended up selling for…
Just one year? That's a brief stint to learn a lot of valuable lessons about organizational behavior. And you probably have some great stories. It's easy to spend 3-5 years at a startup that implodes. One year is failing fast, and at least you got paid the whole time!
i rounded down, it was actually 1.5 years, but the stories i have are downright comical and belong in the silicon valley HBO show
Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B
#376Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Series 3 without cellular is $199 and you can find a cellular model on sale under $250 all the time too.
Yeah well I'm from Eastern Europe where it's more expensive, never on sale and I have less money
Out of curiosity, what is the cost of an iPhone 8 (the cheapest current iPhone) + Apple cellular watch where you live?
Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B
#377John Gruber^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H Dan Lyons^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H Steve Ballmer had another colourful analogy, he used it in response to companies claiming that a merger would create a powerhouse to challenge the market leader: "It’s like taking the two guys who finished second and third in a 100-yard dash and tying their legs together and asking for a rematch, believing that now they’ll run faster." (Thanks to "raldi" f…
“Argument by analogy is very powerful and utterly fallacious” — my high-school Theory Of Knowledge teacher (Mr Dawson you’re the best) That said, I’m really not enthused by this under either the business (relevant case history: Nest) or privacy perspective.
I agree with Mr. Dawson.
Argument by analogy is weak.
Communication containing analogies is powerful.
I do not find it useful to say "If A is like B, then all the things about B must apply to A." This forces us to find perfect analogies, and encourages too much bickering over how well the analogy applies.
But I do find it useful to use an imperfect analogy to illustrate something that you have already established directly. So establish that mergers between #2 and #3 rarely end up beating #1 directly, and then say "It's like..."
Our minds are not cold calculating machines. Colourful, humorous, and/or emotionally laden analogies do help us learn things and remember things.
I have found a similar thing going on with illustrations in blog posts. If you have a section about cascading failures in a digital service, and you include an illustration of dominos falling down, it does help people grasp and remember your point.
Even though obviously, cascading service failures are entirely unlike dominos, and it would be quixotic to attempt to reason about services from the things we know about dominos.
Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B
#378Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's aphorisms all the way down! The usual algorithm is to follow the attributions until you reach Samuel Clemons, Benjamin Franklin, Confucius, or Laozi. They are said to have said everything.
> They are said to have said everything. Which one of them said that?
Raymond Smullyan. He established how they could say things about things they said.
Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B
#379Earlier quoted context omitted.
Revenue is not profit. If you search around, analysts mostly suspect YouTube is either not profitable or only slightly profitable.
Google isn't in it for just the money. They want to control our thinking as well, and given the kind of censorship that is happening on YouTube, if it is operating at a loss, they may not mind because it has other less tangible benefits.
For profit public corporations do everything for the money. There is no ulterior motive.
Re: Google Buys Fitbit for $2.1B
#380Earlier quoted context omitted.
Whatever device I have should transfer data only to computers that are under my control. It might be possible to keep the data local, but it is likely to be neither easy, nor easy to NOT end up accidentally linking it to iCloud. Where I personally don't have a problem with those data living on Apple's servers, parent obviously does.
I'm under the impression that health data is not uploaded to iCloud or backed up by iCloud backup. What makes you think otherwise?
From https://www.apple.com/ios/health/
> Your health data stays up to date across all your devices automatically using iCloud, where it is encrypted while in transit and at rest. Apps that access HealthKit are required to have a privacy policy, so be sure to review these policies before providing apps with access to your health and fitness data.
That it is uploaded and capable of being shared with apps implies that Apple both has access to it and is capable of decrypting it. I also have a wider definition of "health data", and would include sleep patterns, heart rate, and exercise rate under it.