Messages: 28 Location: Rhode Island
Registered: May 2004
Re: mayor10 dumb question of the month...
Mon, 04 November 2019 20:04
The smart watch is not the issue, it's the smart phone it talks to. I'm a software guy and I worked for FitBit for a while. Those devices, along with those from Garmin and a host of other companies do track a tremendous amount of information about you, if you let them. Feel free to turn it off. Or, let the watch collect the data, and send it to your smartphone for your won use, but don't let the phone send it to FitBit or whoever.
To be fair, for many people that's easier said than done. Google phones (and many others) track everywhere you go and transmit it to Google. You can turn that off, if you know it's happening. There are some who will disagree, but you can find out everything the phone does and turn it off.
Of course, once you turn the phone features off, you still have to worry about highway and ATM cameras, your toll transponder, your medical records (which are now required in the US to be maintained electronically), travel records (where you fly, where you buy gas) and so on.
My fear is that, at the rate kids are giving away their information on social media, a court is eventually going to decide that noone has an expectation of privacy anymore...
