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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

#51

Post by specialist »

mscasts wrote: post #43
specialist wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If my health data is so valuable, then I should get paid for it.

Well, you kind of are but not in terms of money but rather with increased knowledge of patterns which should be avoided. They can tell you how to get healthier, identify the optimal sleep and exercise patterns, identify if certain places causes people to be more healthy/unhealthy etc. Companies will most likely use this information as selling points for their devices / apps. I value this information much higher than…

Cool. Put a price on both sides of that transaction. Let me (us) decide for myself (ourselves).

Re: Fitbit's 150B hours of heart data

#52

Post by executesorder66 »

mscasts wrote: post #36

While I am a privacy advocate in most aspects, I fail to see how my basic health data like HR, weight etc is going to be used against me except for bad marketing practices. If I talk ill about some political ideologies and that gets stored until some evil dictator gets in power, that I can get. But who is going to put me in prison for having a high heart rate? The benefits in the other hand is great. I get to see and…

> health data like HR, weight etc is going to be used against me except for bad marketing practices

You could pay more for health and life insurance.

Re: Fitbit's 150B hours of heart data

#53

Post by davemp »

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!

> 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.

Judging from previous performance of using statistical analysis to study health, I don't see it solving anything major.

Health is mostly a combinations of genetics and healthy routines.

People already have a good idea of how they could improve their routines/diets--they choose not to. Healthy routines are hard. So unless the massive data sets are related to genetics, I don't see them contributing much.

Also good luck "anonymizing" genetic data!

Re: Fitbit's 150B hours of heart data

#54

Post by Digit-Al »

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.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm sure that bit was a humorous comment by the author of the article rather than a comment by the scientists.

Re: Fitbit's 150B hours of heart data

#55

Post by TeMPOraL »

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!

If used by researchers, for research. Not sitting in vaults of private companies, doing God knows what. I don't even know what they need that data for.

Sure, now that's there, it could be useful. But why can't we ever go about collecting such data the right way? Opt-in, and for the right purpose?

Re: Fitbit's 150B hours of heart data

#56

Post by TeMPOraL »

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 a bad idea if done the right way. Like, I am informed beforehand that this device is collecting all those data for use in medical research by those particular parties, and here is where I can follow this research.

Because otherwise, that data has no business leaving my personal watchphone network.

Re: Fitbit's 150B hours of heart data

#57

Post by TeMPOraL »

scotty79 wrote: post #27
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…

Do you really think than having less data about human health is better ... because ... privacy? That goes against any progress that was ever achieved in medicine. Or do you have some way of reconciling that man sticking a finger up another man's rectum is good and private but keeping records of something like a heartrate throughout the day is ... im-private? ... and bad?

Fitbit is not a medical R&D company. It's a fitness gadget vendor. Is all this data used for furthering medical research? If so, by whom? If not, why does Fitbit need it, and what does it do with it?

Re: Fitbit's 150B hours of heart data

#58

Post by TeMPOraL »

mscasts wrote: post #36

While I am a privacy advocate in most aspects, I fail to see how my basic health data like HR, weight etc is going to be used against me except for bad marketing practices. If I talk ill about some political ideologies and that gets stored until some evil dictator gets in power, that I can get. But who is going to put me in prison for having a high heart rate? The benefits in the other hand is great. I get to see and…

> and they can use my data along with many others to get patterns and help improve the health of everyone.

Are they actually doing it? How?

I'm a big fan of Datensparsamkeit[0]. Either they actually use this data to further medical research (which is something that would be marketed loudly), or there is no basis to assume they maybe, at some point, could - possibly - do it. Beyond that, I see no valid reason why this data should ever leave my local watchphone network. All fitness-related functionality can be performed off-line. And guess what, when done off-line, you're not screwed if your hardware outlives the vendor.

--

[0] - https://martinfowler.com/bliki/Datensparsamkeit.html

Re: Fitbit's 150B hours of heart data

#59

Post by techstrategist »

executesorder66 wrote: post #52
mscasts wrote: post #36

While I am a privacy advocate in most aspects, I fail to see how my basic health data like HR, weight etc is going to be used against me except for bad marketing practices. If I talk ill about some political ideologies and that gets stored until some evil dictator gets in power, that I can get. But who is going to put me in prison for having a high heart rate? The benefits in the other hand is great. I get to see and…

> health data like HR, weight etc is going to be used against me except for bad marketing practices You could pay more for health and life insurance.

Or even be refused insurance at any price.

Re: Fitbit's 150B hours of heart data

#60

Post by TeMPOraL »

Engineering-MD wrote: post #44
mscasts wrote: post #36

While I am a privacy advocate in most aspects, I fail to see how my basic health data like HR, weight etc is going to be used against me except for bad marketing practices. If I talk ill about some political ideologies and that gets stored until some evil dictator gets in power, that I can get. But who is going to put me in prison for having a high heart rate? The benefits in the other hand is great. I get to see and…

> fail to see how my basic health data like HR, weight etc is going to be used against me except for bad marketing practices. I actually looked into this in some (limited) detail, although for a slightly expanded definition of all data a Fitbit (and the near future similar devices) could collect. Heart rate data has been used in legal cases in the past. In an insurance fraud case, heart rate data from a pacemaker was…

And let's not forget what happens when a fitness tracking company has a data leak, someone plots it on a map, and suddenly military bases pop up like sore thumbs...
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