Slashdot Mirror
Fitness Site Accidentally Shows Sexual Activity
smitty777 writes "FitBit is a wearable device created to track calorie usage based on activities. Unfortunately for some users, one of those is sexual activities. The information gained from the device is uploaded to the users online web account, which is searchable by Google. From the article: 'Yikes. Users of fitness and calorie tracker Fitbit may need to be more careful when creating a profile on the site. The sexual activity of many of the users of the company’s tracker and online platform can be found in Google Search results, meaning that these users’ profiles are public and searchable.'" It's just a matter of time before a line gets crossed and a relationship gets ruined by trying to post the largest Fitbit numbers for the evening.
Problem isn't the sexual activity. Problem is the mindset that people have about it, teached by religions for hundreds of years. When people can finally put that past them and accept that, just like for them, sexual activity is a normal human function there is no need to worry about stuff like this. Then it would be the same as posting on your Facebook wall how good your breakfast was. People would just be bored about it.
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There's a HUGE difference between "showing" sexual activity as the article suggests and "tracking" it. Correct me if I'm wrong as I had trouble opening the site but was there a video of someone getting it on or just graphs and stuff.
"We are just a war away from Amerikastan. When god vs god the undoing of man." Dave Mustaine
I use the BodyMedia device, which is similar to FitBit in that it estimates calories burned by measuring various things: Galvanic skin response, skin temperature, body heat and has an accelerometer. I like it a lot, although there is a subscription required.
The only data I enter manually are my food logs, which can be a pain but it helps keep you honest and focused. I wouldn't want to also have to enter my 'activities' each day. It's interesting enough to just see a bar graph of calories/minute and a total number. If that data did become searchable, only I would know what that sudden spike on last Saturday afternoon was. But you would find out I am a Taco Bell junkie.
Did that guy from the screenshot in TFA have sexual activity for 4 hours and 15 minutes? FitBit is really good for your stamina, apparently.
I love that the graphic used in the article shows that Jeff had 4 hours and 15 minutes of sexual activity. So maybe those that are away of this searching ability will "pump their numbers" a little bit in the hopes that someone special might see?
From the article:
So why are Fitbit users’ profiles able to be searchable in Google? It’s not really Fitbit’s fault. When you create a profile, the default privacy setting allows profiles to be found in search results (Google, Bing, etc). If you don’t unclick this setting, it will obviously make your profile public for anyone to find.
It is very clearly Fitbit's fault. This option should be unchecked by default, so that users who don't notice it don't accidentally make their profiles public.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
"It’s not really Fitbit’s fault ... the default privacy setting allows profiles to be found in search results"
And who's fault is such a default setting that makes such information public?
It's the user's fault. The default setting clearly stated that they wanted to signed up for spam, publish sexual information, and support the Irish Republican Army.
It's actually mainly about insecurity or jealousy that your partner is going to have a lot of fun without you and end up abandoning you.
Compared to my previous relationship, where my partner was constantly jealous of anyone who looked at me (or vice versa), my current relationship where we're free to look or touch is a lot more stress-free. The funny part is that neither of us is doing anything outside our relationship, but the freedom eliminates the potential for jealousy or worry as we are secure in our relationship.
Sounds like it was designed with Slashdot's most common form of sexual activity in mind!
...Where do you attach this accelerometer-based apparatus when you're boinking?
rj
It's all fine and dandy until you have to pay child support.
You know you want to do the Jane Fonda.
Don't kid yourself. It's the size of the regexp AND how you use it that counts.
If you choose to store the data on the website, then you have done this to share this data.
from the first page of fitlib site: "Walk within 15ft of the provided basestation and your data will be automatically uploaded to the Fitbit website."
But it is easier to blame the technology. Somthing could be tagged wrong, or should not have been made public.
Calories burned in sex or duration of sex do not seem to indicate quality i would say.
4 hours 15 minutes. Yeah. Sure.
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I just tried the search indicated in the article. Google returned no search results. Did Google block or scrub it somehow?
I am a cardiologist.
A young male patient goes to his female primary care doc and tells her that he gets palpitations sporadically. To rule out a suptraventricular tachycardia, she places him on a 24 hour home telemetry monitor. The monitor shows a (normal) fast heart rate at 11pm, so she sends him to me.
I ask him what he was doing. Apparently his girlfriend thought that the monitor was "hot", so they did it with the monitor on. The patient was too embarrased to tell his primary care, so he was sent to me.
I wrote in my letter to the primary care that the increased rate was due to "normal physiologic activity".
Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
This is the second time that this has surfaced. The article is misleading because, first off, you have complete control over the privacy settings of your profile. So, these people choose to have their activity public. Secondly, the FitBit is not capable of automatically tagging activity as Sex. The user must go onto the site and add that "activity" to their profile manually. FitBit is nothing more than a glorified pedometer with a good web-based tracking software.
-- Xnient
Ah well. In the spirit of looking at the "BIG" picture. It is interesting that now, 10:50am est, the Google links do NOT return anything.
So in the bigger picture, Google is censoring what we can see. Well again it comes to light that the big "G" can do anything they like but it's also apparently "ok:" for them to censor what we can see.
Kind of sick in a big way. Maybe "G" should be required to show what they have "collected" to everyone. Then maybe this sick spying, watching stuff would get the attention it deserves. And the world would be a bit better.
After analyzing the data it appears that slashdot readers have not performed any exercise or sexual activity.
http://twitpic.com/5my6yr
http://blog.fitbit.com/ Fitbit has put an end to this.
It's just a matter of time before a line gets crossed and a relationship gets saved / rekindled by trying to post the largest Fitbit numbers for the evening.
FTFY
Pics, or it didn't happen.
http://www.google.com/search?q=sex+%22exercise+diary%22+site%3Afatsecret.com
And I haven't done a single situp in the last 20 years.
And no... this is not a joke post. :-)
I figure I've got another 8-10 good years left then the hip or back probably goes to arthritis.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
The ONLY difference is you don't consider it a betrayal for your spouse to go out with other people, as long as they let you know.
That's a good guess, but I don't think it's accurate. It is NOT that "he trusts her to keep him informed about her extramarital sexual interactions" nor that people in such a position simply don't have a "negative" view of such activity.
ElectricTurtle is right, in that it's about trust. The thing to trust, however, is that each partner trusts that their relationship is not defined by sexual exclusivity. Each partner trusts that the other's role in the relationship that they mutually enjoy is also neither defined by nor negatively affected by sexual encounters with other people.
Do you pass judgment on others with whom you're not sexually involved with based on their sexual activity? Was Anthony Weiner somehow less capable as a legislator overnight because we suddenly knew more about who and how he liked to fuck? Would you consider your son a liar, or perhaps a traitor, for waiting for years to tell you that he's gay?
Perspective on something that, for many, is strictly and inexorably overflowing with emotion is very difficult to instill in the average person. Discussing sex (or anything really... politics is a good example) with someone who has a radically opposing view (or views) isn't exactly an easy task.
It's easy to continue a semi-rant on this, but I suppose the bottom line is that it's really silly to consider your spouse a traitor for seeking or achieving sexual fulfillment. The real betrayal is a spouse that lies when saying "I love you."
Boot Windows, Linux, and ESX over the network for free.
If you cross reference the "vigorous sexual activity" and the amount a person posts to Slashdot you can find the liars!
Fitbit already turned off all public "sexual activity" information and killed the Google search capability as far as I can tell. Not a bad response of the order of 30 minutes from a corporate point of view. FWIW.
someone added that in on a workout log like 4 hrs and 15 mins and they put "sexual activity"... that's not at all what the summary implies.
The point is that someone will post sexual activity at a time when they didn't have sexual activity with the person who believes they're exclusive. IE - Wife posts sexual activity at 2pm while the husband is at work.
I8-D
Fitbit blocked it; they've forced all the profiles to private then requested the search engines to do a fast rescan of their site.
Nothing to see, move along.
Surely I don't give a fuck for that
The drugs and tools these days are so much better than when I had mine 20 years ago... it was way too uncomfortable to consider watching.
She's got an Erdos number and I don't. I'd been going to suggest Sigourney Weaver before the other comments.
And Pelosi doesn't deserve all the negative flood of crap pointed at her - the Republican propaganda machine was doing that just because she was one of the two lead Democrats in Congress. She's really too conservative for her district, and didn't provide the tough leadership the Democrats needed to stand up to the Republicans when she was in charge (and neither did Reid, or Obama), but she's fairly bright and understands issues. I disagree with her a lot (she is a Democrat, after all), but being wrong doesn't make her a dummy.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
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Depends on whether you've left your pajamas on the bed...
Then it would be the same as posting on your Facebook wall how good your breakfast was
Not in all situations. Correlate it with FourSquare check-ins, or similar, especially when they become automatic eventually, especially within a circle of friends, and things people do suddenly become public when they would otherwise have remained private.
12:04PM Bob checked-in at the Ramada Downtown via FourSquare
12:07PM Alice checked-in at the Ramada Downtown via FourSquare
12:43PM Bob had a 20 minute workout. Great job, Bob! via FitBit
12:43PM Alice had a 20 minute workout. Great job, Alice! via FitBit
12:57PM Bob checked in at Megalocorp via FourSquare
12:59PM Alice checked in at Megalocorp via FourSquare
9:45PM Bob is now single 3
10:15PM Alice is now It's Complicated 3
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Fitbits are about $100. They're not only useful for tracking your exercise, but also your sleep quality. I looked at them and several other products when I was having sleep issues a while back (I like Zeo, and built an Arduino-Thing) - and a year or two ago accelerometers were hitting the Dirt Cheap part of the price curve so all sorts of things are starting to get them besides iPhones. There are a few other startups doing motion-tracking watches, though I like the TI Chronos watch better (16-bit development microcontroller environment on your wrist!)
They do have to deal with the privacy question - how much of your info do you want to upload to cloud-based services, and do you want those services sharing info with your friends. They also have to compete with $1 iPhone apps and free Android apps, such as sleep-state-based alarm clocks. On the other hand, they've done a really good packaging job, so their frob is much easier to always have around than an iPhone.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
If you go on a backpacking trip or field expedition for any significant period of time you pretty much know all the bodily habits of your mates: when they eat, sleep, pee, defecate, shag, etc. Its seems natural and not that interesting.
It's tracking exercise and sexual activity, so nothing any of us here on Slashdot have to worry about.