Nike+ FuelBand: Possibly a Big Security Hole For Your Life

MojoKid writes "Nike+ FuelBand is a $149 wristband with LED display that tracks your daily activity, tells you how many calories you've burned, lets you know how much fuel you have left in the tank, and basically keeps track of 'every move you make.' If you think that sounds like a privacy nightmare waiting to happen, it pretty much is. A source directly connected to Nike reported an amusing, albeit startling anecdote about a guy who got caught cheating on his girlfriend because of the Nike+ FuelBand. 'They shared their activity between each other and she noticed he was active at 1-2AM, when he was supposed to be home.' That's just one scenario. What if the wristband gets lost or stolen? How much data is actually stored on these sorts of devices? And remember, you're syncing it to the cloud with an iOS or Android app."

Comments

That's more tracking than intensive probation

[NixieBunny]

So... people voluntarily do this to themselves? Weird.

Re:That's more tracking than intensive probation

[jhoegl]

Clearly, the guy who was wearing the band forgot to take it off when he was into his laborous other activities.
This shows the ignorance people have of technology more than anything else.
This is how you subjugate a populace... make sure they are ignorant, make sure they get a benefit out of something, and then hide the real reason.
I mean, it worked for that one guy with the ring in that documentary I saw.

Re:what is the point of this article?

[fermion]

This is the most lame privacy concern ever. Anyone who can't explain the could not sleep and went for a run a 1 in the morning either deserves or wants to get caught. So yes if you like to have sex with several different people without one knowing about the other, this is a bad device to have. But really, it does track location, take pictures, or lets you input incriminating text, like "1am, left gf house, picked up a random person, took home, and achieved real satisfaction.", just as a for instance.

You what is a real privacy and relationship killer. The pager. Can't tell you how many people have gotten into trouble because a partner read a page. Or mail. Can't tell you what receiving a postcard from a friend asking you to join on the next vacation does to a marriage. Or the phone. You never know when a spouse is going to answer by mistake. Or, seriously people, credit card bills. I mean many don't think about it, but credit card bills and receipts have gotten me into trouble on more than one occasion. Also, remember that every cell phone call you make, and Skype call for that matter, is listed in detail for anyone to see. Exactly., When. How long. Who. This is trouble in the making and no one should it. Everyone should be using a burner phone.

Re:what is the point of this article?

[jamesh]

Most of these "privacy concern" articles are things that can be handled by simply going home to your wife and kids when you are supposed to. Sounds like a lot of folks with these "privacy concerns" are just trying to hide their marital affairs.

This is the problem with privacy. People take one very narrow slice of the pie and run with it. If you're cheating on your spouse and exposing him/her to disease etc then you get what you deserve, so I agree with you there, but what if you secretly liked to dress up in women's clothes and go dancing in the middle of the night, or attend late night screenings of Alan Smithee productions? Those are the sort of things that society in general would frown on but are really nobodies business but your own and your right to privacy should be protected.

That said, if you wear one of these while doing any of the above and then share that information with the world, you're an idiot.

Re:what is the point of this article?

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

Yes. It keeps track of what you're doing. You know this because you can see the data it captures.

Yes, you can see the data that it captures. What you can't see is all of the things which that data may reveal about you in the hands of someone motivated enough. Don't confuse the forest with the trees - the anecdote about the guy getting caught cheating is not about the risk of getting caught cheating, it is the risk of "20/20 hindsight." In retrospect it is obvious that his data would reveal something like that to a suspicios girlfriend. But at the time it was not so obvious, it isn't like he deliberately uploaded a message that said "having sex with another girl @1am" to the nike website.

Pervasive data collection is extremely new, we as a society have not figured out all of the risks involved. Contrast that to "living in a small town" - because society has had millenia of experience with that situation we generally have a good understanding of the risks involved. It is going to take a lot of people finding out the hard way what the problems are with pervasive data collection before we, if we ever, come to understand the trade-offs that come along with it.

Re:what is the point of this article?

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

GP's point is that the user willingly brought the device, willingly let it record their lives, and willingly shared that data with a third party.

And my point is that his decisions were not fully informed and given the lack of experience we as a society have with panopticon-type personal information gathering it is a randian pipedream to expect the average joe to be fully informed. Especially when the people selling the product have an interest in downplaying such risks in order to keep sales up.