Live data from Hacker News

Fitbit users are unwittingly sharing details of their sex lives with the world

thenextweb.com

31–40 of 55 posts

Re: Fitbit users are unwittingly sharing details of their sex lives with the world

#31
post #23
post #18

Seriously: who cares? If I'd had the exhibitionist inclination to publish my jogging and TV watching habits, I would not mind having the duration of my sexual activity published as well. Who cares? It's not like having sex is something top secret nobody else does. But since I would not want to publish all my questionable efforts to stay in shape, it would probably be a good idea to make the public/private setting a l…

Really, again? When I have an own opinion here that does not follow the mainstream, I just get downvoted without any arguments. Why is it so bad to have your sex duration published but its okay that your jogging performance visible to the world?

"Why is it so bad to have your sex duration published but its okay that your jogging performance visible to the world?"

They are completely different. Maybe not to you but if you can't see how it would bother some people then you're not thinking very hard.

Re: Fitbit users are unwittingly sharing details of their sex lives with the world

#32
post #22

Since they will probably block this soon and get Google to flush its public cache, here's are some examples (with user tokens redacted): Google results: https://img.skitch.com/20110703-r79t4swrjt3e2akwh3xdfbcrsg.p... Part of a profile: https://img.skitch.com/20110703-cwmhwiicewy6hh5xw67ctwrq7m.p...

Appears to be blocked now

Re: Fitbit users are unwittingly sharing details of their sex lives with the world

#33
post #20
post #5

I think it's crazy that they by default share when you have sex, for how long, and how hard, but that they decided that weight and bmi information should be private.

Weight and bmi are information about you. Sex and other activies are information of your activies. It's simply grouped as it should be.

"To be is to do" - Socrates

"To do is to be" - Sartre

"Do Be Do Be Do" - Sinatra

Re: Fitbit users are unwittingly sharing details of their sex lives with the world

#34
post #6

Is it only Americans that see this as a problem? Let me be the first European to redundantly point out that sex is natural and nothing to be ashamed of. So what's the big deal? How many more years will it take the moral (majority?) to get over the way our bodies work.

I think the graying out is a bit harsh for anything that gets negative points, but okay.

The negative points, well, that seems to happen any time the state of the union (it's not so good) ie the state of the US, is mentioned by me. What % of users are American? Probably higher than I realised. In future I'll work on the theory that comments that work from a position of superiority don't get anywhere. They seem to make even leftcoasters and NY-ers leap to the defence of Alabamians' values. Surprising. Or do users just dislike any discussion of politics here?

I was a libertarian uber-capitalist and totally pro-US, until, like most people, I noticed that the entire political class of most rich nations are working for the financial sector, which is not, by the way, the same as working for the technology sector. Now, I'm at least a leveller and pro a quite equal OUTCOME of income in a society. Way to go Dick Fuld (et al.) Who needs fascism when you've got an oligarchy of Wall St.

Re: Fitbit users are unwittingly sharing details of their sex lives with the world

#35
post #34
post #6

Is it only Americans that see this as a problem? Let me be the first European to redundantly point out that sex is natural and nothing to be ashamed of. So what's the big deal? How many more years will it take the moral (majority?) to get over the way our bodies work.

I think the graying out is a bit harsh for anything that gets negative points, but okay. The negative points, well, that seems to happen any time the state of the union (it's not so good) ie the state of the US, is mentioned by me. What % of users are American? Probably higher than I realised. In future I'll work on the theory that comments that work from a position of superiority don't get anywhere. They seem to mak…

Hey, darling, as a european feminist sex-neutral naturalist queer socialist, I tell you, you just replaced libertarianism with nationalism. Stop that.

And now to the annoying part of telling you exactly why you're wrong:

1. Unless you're working for Berlusconi sharing your sex life details with your management and/or press is probably going to get you in trouble. Even in Europe. For some values of "Europe" it's more like "especially in Europe".

2. We're not living in a perfect world. In a perfect world, there would be no implicit difference between "I pronged a bell pepper today" and "I sneezed today," at least not in the "how much people would ridicule you for that" department. We are not living in a perfect world, deal with it.

3. Because of 2 and 1, there is a significant difference between the reasonable expectation of publicness of statements like "ate a cheeseburger, vigorous effort, 15 seconds" and statements like "sexual activity, active, vigorous effort, 5 seconds." Ignoring said difference make you an a... I mean, a person generally considered unpleasant.

4. Yeah, in Europe too.

Re: Fitbit users are unwittingly sharing details of their sex lives with the world

#36
post #7
post #2

The real question is: what can we do with the data?

Collect dataset of low sexual activity people, connect with Facebook, analyze users Like and Commenting patterns and then build a Facebook dating app that suggests local deals, and activities with other low sexual activity folks.

Correlate all data with foursquare too, and on the morning after, send an email with the subject like "Know what Robert really likes? Chocolate. Here's where to get a brand that's like his favorite but he never had it."

Re: Fitbit users are unwittingly sharing details of their sex lives with the world

#37
post #24
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weight and bmi are information about you. Sex and other activies are information of your activies. It's simply grouped as it should be.

And that comment right there is why programmers shouldn't design social networks.

Indeed, it's why they should grow an ethical/moral portion in their brain as well -_-'

Being a professional doesn't mean you should ignore ethical or moral concerns.

Re: Fitbit users are unwittingly sharing details of their sex lives with the world

#38
post #37
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that comment right there is why programmers shouldn't design social networks.

Indeed, it's why they should grow an ethical/moral portion in their brain as well -_-' Being a professional doesn't mean you should ignore ethical or moral concerns.

[deleted]

Re: Fitbit users are unwittingly sharing details of their sex lives with the world

#39
post #23
post #18

Seriously: who cares? If I'd had the exhibitionist inclination to publish my jogging and TV watching habits, I would not mind having the duration of my sexual activity published as well. Who cares? It's not like having sex is something top secret nobody else does. But since I would not want to publish all my questionable efforts to stay in shape, it would probably be a good idea to make the public/private setting a l…

Really, again? When I have an own opinion here that does not follow the mainstream, I just get downvoted without any arguments. Why is it so bad to have your sex duration published but its okay that your jogging performance visible to the world?

[deleted]

Re: Fitbit users are unwittingly sharing details of their sex lives with the world

#40
post #32
post #22

Since they will probably block this soon and get Google to flush its public cache, here's are some examples (with user tokens redacted): Google results: https://img.skitch.com/20110703-r79t4swrjt3e2akwh3xdfbcrsg.p... Part of a profile: https://img.skitch.com/20110703-cwmhwiicewy6hh5xw67ctwrq7m.p...

Appears to be blocked now

Though still available in google's cached pages. Still for the dozen or so I have looked at, most of the users who chose to share their sex lives only did so under an alias with no picture or a pictures that you could not see the face. You really have to give these users a little more credit.
Post reply on HN