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Fitness App Runkeeper Secretly Tracks Users At All Times, Sends Data to Advertisers (androidauthority.com)
An anonymous reader writes: FitnessKeeper, the company behind running app Runkeeper, is in hot water in Europe. The company has received a formal complaint from the Norwegian Consumer Council for breaching European data protection laws. But why? Runkeeper tracks its users' location at all times -- not just when the app is active -- and sends that data to advertisers. The NCC, a consumer rights watchdog, is conducting an investigation into 20 apps' terms and conditions to see if the apps do what their permissions say they do and to monitor data flows. Tinder has already been reported to the Norwegian data protection authority for similar breaches of privacy laws. The NCC's investigation into Runkeeper discovered that user location data is tracked around the clock and gets transmitted to a third party advertiser in the U.S. called Kiip.me.Finn Myrstad, the council's digital policy director, said: We checked the apps technically, to see the data flows and to see if the apps actually do what they say they do. Everyone understands that Runkeeper tracks users while they exercise, but to continue after the training has ended is not okay. Not only is it a breach of privacy laws, we are also convinced that users do not want to be tracked in this way, or for information to be shared with third party advertisers.
I'd be very surprised if there's not some legalese in there that permits this.
Stop the presses!
Drop the bomb!
Exterminate them all!
Not surprisingly, it is a free app(with in app purchases-not sure how that works with a running app, but whatever). They had to be getting their money from somewhere....
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
I'm shocked, shocked to discover there's undisclosed data slurping for advertisers going on in there.
Have gnu, will travel.
Bet there's something in there that allows this.
If I'm going over my monthly data cap because an app it using up my bandwidth, can I ask them to reimburse me for added data costs? Seems fair to me...
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Never met one that didn't tell the world when and where they ran. They're like vegans in that regard. I doubt many of their users will care.
I'm not surprised at all, I would like someone to do this analysis with the Garmin Connect app. A while ago it was updated so that you couldn't connect the vivosmart directly to your phone without doing it through the app. Then, another update the app isn't even usable unless you turn on location services. So for someone like me whose use case is mostly so I don't have to pull my phone out of my pocket to check/ack a page and occasionally for exercise. It became a piece of junk that sits in a drawer.
Sister got Dad a fitbit as a gift. It wants so many permissions in Android that the family decided not to install, activate, or use it. Seems corporations view people as marks to be fleeced instead of valued customers.
That's am immediate uninstall then. I'm personally not that fussed about being tracked, it's more a concern on battery drain from an app that shouldn't be doing it!
I agree it's a violation of user privacy but still I'm curious about what the tracking data shows. For example I wonder what percentage of those exercising hit up a donut shop after they're done.
"Another branch of the European government was furious they had not thought of this first because les terroristes "
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
my iPhone says that the app wants access to GPS even when I am not using it or have opened it. So these get uninstalled again. I believe the last one I tried was Waze.
The first link goes to a website named "Android Authority"; the article in the second link includes the phrase "...the Android version of the app...". Anyone know if the iOS version is doing this also?
"Don't blame the log for the fire." --Andrew Ratshin
There are only two location sharing options, Never and while the app is active. If they're bypassing this on iOS 9, Apple has got some problems.
The App is snooping, it has been outed, it is simply a matter of time, next security update will blacklist the app, revoke all it s privileges and all is well in the world, right?
In reality, people who rooted their phone, run a security manager that sandboxes all apps and prompts for every network access, will be safe. People who trusted Apples and Googles to keep them safe would be taken to the cleaners.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Some apps that you really want demand all sorts of capabilities that you do not want to give to them. Some will not install or behave badly if you do not grant what they want. What is needed is a 3 way grant of permissions: yes (allow), no (do not allow), lie (use a contact list of: mickey mouse, the queen, pres obama, ...; location: North Pole; ....) like that they are happy and just report to their masters junk information.
In the US maybe you can put a lot of stuff in some state like enforcing arbitration and giving up rights, but in europe we take a deem view of this, you cannot waive your fundemental rights, and, depending on the juridiction, either be those clause are waived , and can in some cases up to nullify a contract. In this case data protection comes in, and I am guessing that kiip.me will find itself in very hot water rapidly.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
Anyone who has gotten burned by this kind of crap and is surprised, hurt, or indignant, please repeat after me: "If I'm not paying for the product, I AM the product". Now, continue to repeat it, out loud if necessary, until it sticks. Make it a daily mantra. When you see a 'free' service you're interested in, if your immediate thought is "how will I and / or my data be taken advantage of if I sign up for this?", then you've successfully activated your best protection against being an unwitting victim of 'free'.
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
There's very useful service https://tapiriik.com/ (free and open source https://github.com/cpfair/tapi... ) that lets you migrate workouts between different fitness apps. It supports runkeeper, strava (my favourite), endomondo, garmin and even dropbox.
-- mg
You just need to be a U.S. owned 1% corporation like Google. Then the German government will allow you to do things they would never permit a German company to do.
For example, Google Mail (and scanning emails in order to present ads) would never have been allowed to be done by GMX.
In other words, the vasalls of the Imperium have very little rights while the Imperator's corporations have LOTS of rights.
...could work wonders in order to address these issues. Turn it on whenever you need privacy.
Vote Clinton or Bush, so that their Riad friends can kill 4000 Americans without punishment.
Even better, the 1% press will whip you up to kill a million IRAQIS in retaliation for Saudi terror.
If you're transmitting data to a service provider, that data will be sold.
Prove it that you're the only Locke2005. I am Locke2005 too. :P
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
So that explains why my battery life has tanked since I installed Runkeeper...
F' them.
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat