21–30 of 156 posts
Is there any brand of wrist sensor that doesn't require you to upload your data to their servers by any chance? I love the fitbit sensor, but I wish I could opt out of the server side of the things
It's crazy to me that people will run non-free software on something that is designed to capture biometrics... but then again I've been looking for a decent open source alternative and there is nothing out there.
>First, Google has the incentive and ability to favour the adoption of Fitbit over rival wearables on the user side, and to simultaneously undermine the ability of others to offer competing products to insurers and health providers.
I guess the argument is that Google buying Fitbit would mean other non-Apple wearables would be at a disadvantage by nature of there being a first-party alternative, but is that inherently monopolistic or anti-competitive? Isn't that essentially what Google has been attempting to do with Nest or the Pixel phone line?
After multiple reads, I fail to understand what blocking this merger does other than temporarily delay Google from doing what the tech industry is going to continue to do, exploit the ignorance of policy-makers and the general public to harvest and sell our personal information. Does blocking this merger even accomplish anything other than delaying what will be inevitable without legislative action?
E: forgot some words
Is there any brand of wrist sensor that doesn't require you to upload your data to their servers by any chance? I love the fitbit sensor, but I wish I could opt out of the server side of the things
Is there any brand of wrist sensor that doesn't require you to upload your data to their servers by any chance? I love the fitbit sensor, but I wish I could opt out of the server side of the things
If you are into DIY, you don't necessarily need to be a DSP guru, there already quite a few 'good enough' IC's, like the MAX30102 (Maxim) for HR and oximetry, it doesnt need any major analogue considerations you just need to implement the communication side (I2C)to extract data.
It's crazy to me that people will run non-free software on something that is designed to capture biometrics... but then again I've been looking for a decent open source alternative and there is nothing out there.
If that is the case then whether you prefer a Google solution to a open source solution depends very much on your threat model. Google may use that data to target ads but running your own solution you risk losing the raw data to a security flaw in the open source code or infrastructure. At least with Google you get world class infosec to protect your data (from everyone except Google...)
Is there any brand of wrist sensor that doesn't require you to upload your data to their servers by any chance? I love the fitbit sensor, but I wish I could opt out of the server side of the things
It's crazy to me that people will run non-free software on something that is designed to capture biometrics... but then again I've been looking for a decent open source alternative and there is nothing out there.
I would be happy with a commercial product that simply stored data in a place of your choosing, like to a PC, in a parseable format. I don't think a product that was completely self-managed (no cloud) could be competitive anymore, so that's pretty much left up to OSS. I really miss software that didn't require internet connectivity being the norm.
What about Amazon and Apple? Why is Google the only recipient with scrutiny? Especially since the merger hasn't happened yet. You should be frightened about all of them.
Google is under scrutiny here doesn't exclude others from being under scrutiny.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apple doesn't have your health data. They are on device, and any work with the data (statistics) is also done on the device and not somewhere in the Cloud. They don't want your data, it's not their business model. Sure - Health data is backed up over iCloud, but this is encrypted and again Apple doesn't have a way to view the data outside of an Apple device.
Do you have a source for iCloud backups being end-to-end encrypted?? As far as I know, everything in iCloud is just encrypted (i.e. Apple has the decryption key). In fact, law enforcement often asks for data from iCloud because unlocking the physical phone is harder.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204351
Back up your Health data Health information is stored in iCloud and gets encrypted as it goes between iCloud and your device, and while it's stored in iCloud. End-to-end encryption requires iOS 12 and two-factor authentication. To stop storing your Health data in iCloud, go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud and turn off Health. If you aren't using iCloud, you can back up your information in Health by encrypting your iTunes backup. The information that you create or gather about yourself is under your control, and it's encrypted with your passcode when you lock your iPhone