Yan Shvartzshnaider (@ynotez) and Madelyn Sanfilippo (@MrsMRS_PhD)
Fitness trackers are “[devices] that you can wear that records your daily physical activity, as well as other information about your health, such as your heart rate” [Oxford Dictionary]. The increasing popularity of wearable devices offered by Apple, Google, Nike inadvertently led cheaper versions to flood the market, along with the emergence of alternative non-tech, but fashionable brand devices. Cheaper versions ostensibly offer similar functionality for one-tenth of the price, which makes them very appealing to consumers. On Amazon, many of these devices receive overall positive feedback and an average of 4-5 star reviews. Some of them are even labeled as “Amazon’s choice” and “Best buyer” (e.g. Figure 1), which reinforces their popularity.
In this blog post, we examine privacy issues around these cheaper alternatives devices, specifically focusing on the ambiguities around third party apps they are using. We report our preliminary results into a few apps that seem to dominate the marketspace. Note that fashion brands also employ third party apps like WearOS by Google, but they tend to be more recognizable and subject to greater consumer protection scrutiny. This makes them different than lesser-known devices.
Figure 1: LETSCOM, uses VeryFitPro, with over 13K reviews, labeled as Amazon’s Choice and is marketed to children.
Do consumers in fact pay dearly for the cheaper version of these devices?
Privacy issues are not unique to cheaper brands. Any “smart device” that has the ability to collect, process and share information about you and the surrounding environment, can potentially violate your privacy. Security issues also play an important role. Services like Mozilla’s Privacy Not Included and Consumer reports help navigate the treacherous landscape. However, even upholding the Minimum Security Standards doesn’t prevent privacy violations due to inappropriate use of information, see Strava and Polar incidents.
Given that most of the analysis is typically done by an app paired with a fitness tracker, we decided to examine the “CheapBit” products sold on Amazon, with a large average number of reviews and answered questions, to see which apps they pair with. We found that the less-expensive brands are dominated by a few third-party apps primarily developed by small teams (or individuals) and do not provide any real description as to how data are used and shared.
But what do we know about these apps?
The VeryFitPro app seems to be the choice of many of the users buying the cheaper fitness trackers alternatives. The app has 5,000,000+ installs, according to Google Play, where it lists an email of the developer and the website with just a QR code to download the app. The app has access to an extensive list of permissions: SMS, Camera, Location, Wifi information, Device ID & Call information, Device & app history, Identity, Phone, Storage, Contacts, and Photo/Media/Files! The brief privacy policy appears to be translated into English using an automatic translation tool, such as Google Translate.
Surprisingly, what appears to be the same app on the Apple Store points to a different privacy policy altogether, hosted on a Facebook page! The app provides a different contact email () and policy is even shorter than on the Play Store. In a three-paragraph policy, we are reassured that “some of your fitness information and sports data will be stored in the app, but your daily activities data will never be shared without permission.” and with a traditional “We reserve the right, in our decision to change, modify, add or remove portions of this policy at any time. Please check this page periodically for any changes. Publish any changes to these terms if you continue to use our App future will mean that you have accepted these adjustments. [sic]” No additional information is provided.
While we found the VeryFitPro to be common among cheap fitness trackers, especially high-rated ones, it is not unique. Other apps such as JYouPro, which has access to the same range of permissions, offer privacy policy which is just two paragraphs long which also reassures users that “[they] don’t store personal information on our servers unless required for the on-going operation of one of our services.” The Apple version offers a slightly longer version of the policy. In it, we find that “When you synchronise the Band data, e.g. to JYouPro Cloud Service, we may collect data relating to your activities and functionalities of JYouPro, such as those obtained from our sensors and features on JYouPro, your sleeping patterns, movement data, heart rate data, and smart alarm related information.” Given that JYouPro is used by a large number of devices, their “Cloud service” seems to be sitting on a very lucrative data set. The policy warns us: “Please note also that for the above, JYouPro may use overseas facilities operated and controlled by JYouPro to process or back up your personal data. Currently, JYouPro has data centres in Beijing and Singapore.”
These are however not the worst offenders. Developers behind apps like MorePro and Wearfit didn’t even bother to translate their privacy policies from Chinese!
Users’ privacy concerns
These third-party apps are incredibly popular and pervade the low-end wearable market: VeryFitPro ( 5,000,000+ installs), JYouPro (500,000+ installs), WearFit (1,000,000+ installs). With little oversight, they are able to collect and process lots of potentially sensitive information from having access to contacts, camera, location, and other sensors data from a large number of users. Most of them are developed by small teams or unknown Chinese firms, which dominate the mHealth market.
A small portion of users on Amazon express privacy concerns. For one of the top selling products LETSCOM Fitness Tracker which uses VeryFitPro with 4/5 stars, 14,420 ratings and 1000+ answered questions, marketed towards “Kids Women and Men”, we were able to find only a few questions on privacy. Notably, none of the questions was upvoted, so we suspect the remain unseen by the typical buyer. For example, one user was asking “What is the privacy policy for the app? How secure is the personal information? [sic]” to which another user (not the manufacturer) replied “A: This connects to your phone by bluetooth. That being said, I guess you could connect it only when you are in a secure location but then you wouldn’t have the message or phone notifications.” A similar concern was raised by another user “What is this company’s policy on data privacy? Will they share or sell the data to third parties?”
In another popular product, Lintelek Fitness Tracker with Heart Rate Monitor which used VeryFitPro with 4/5 stars, 4,050 ratings. Out of 1000+ answered questions, only a couple mentioned privacy. The first user gave a product 1 start with ominous warning “Be sure to read the privacy agreement before accepting this download”. Interestingly, the second user rated the product with 5 stars and gave a very positive review that ends with “Only CON: read the privacy statement if you are going to use the text/call feature. They can use your information. I never turned it on – I always have my phone anyway.”
The fact that buyers of these devices do not investigate the privacy issues is troubling. Previous research showed that consumers will think that if a company has a privacy policy it protects their privacy. It seems to be clear that consumers need help from the platform. Amazon, Google and Apple ought to better inform consumers about potential privacy violations. In addition to consumer protection obligations by these platforms, regulators ought to apply increased scrutiny. While software are not conventional medical devices, hence not covered by HIPAA, some medical apps do fall under FDA authority, including apps that correspond with wearables. Furthermore, as in Figure 1 shows, these devices are marketed to children so the app should be subject to enforcement of children’s privacy standards like COPPA.
In conclusion, the lesser-known fitness tracking brands offer a cheaper alternative to high-end market products. However, as previous research showed, consumers of these devices are potentially paying a high-privacy price. The consumers are left to fend for themselves. In many cases, the cheaper devices pertaining to firms outside of US jurisdiction and thus US and European regulations are difficult to enforce. Furthermore, global platforms like Amazon, Google, Apple, and others seem to turn a blind eye to privacy issues and help to promote these devices and apps. They offer unhelpful and possibly misleading labels to the consumers such as Amazon’s “best seller”, “Amazon’s choice”, Google’s Play Store’s download count and star ratings, which exacerbate an already global and complex issue. It requires proactive action on behalf of all parties to offer lasting protection of users’ privacy, one that incorporates the notions of established societal norms and expectations.
We would like to thank Helen Nissenbaum for offering her thoughts on the topic.
