Is security and data privacy important on tracker devices like Fitbit?
Radu Vunvulea
VP of Cloud | Cloud Strategy and Transformation | Microsoft Regional Director | Microsoft MVP
Read more: https://vunvulearadu.blogspot.ro/2017/09/is-security-and-data-privacy-important.html
A few days ago, I read about how insecure Fitbit devices are. There was a lot of noise created around it, explaining different ways how you can hack Fitbit device to gain access to personal data. My first reaction when I saw the title of article was “So what!?” and let me explain why I don’t see this a life treating or something that will stop me to use my Fitbit.
Personal data
It is true that a tracker contains personal data, but let us be realistic and look on what data it has. Most of the trackers contains information related to your past activity, heartbeat, number of steps and in some cases GPS information.
Except GPS information, the rest of the data are not so sensitive. What do you think that a hacker can do if he knows that you done 10k steps this morning. Yes, he might know your habits and broke into your house when you are jogging or walk the dog. This scenario can be real, but the true is that there are so many ways to find out what are your habits that you would be impressed.
Just imagine that every like or activity on Facebook can be seen by your Facebook friends. This mean that I know when you rest after a training session or when you are busy with your dog. If I combine this with social activity networks like Strava, than I really do not need to get your Fitbit information. I already know when you go at the gym or to a jog.
For most of the people GPS information is a concern, but we are living a time when we are surrounded of devices that can track us in a way or another. It is enough to connect to multiple wireless networks in the same day for somebody to be able to know where we were and create a virtual activity route. If you are using a cellular, than you already know that your location can be tracked more or less, but you need to become a ‘VIP’ person for this.
If you are a normal personal nowadays, that is using social networks, has a phone and enjoy the benefits of digitalization than you can be tracked easily. I don’t think that this should concern us as long as we don’t have something to hide and we are just a row in some statistics (Yes, we are more than that, but from statistics perspective, we are just a number).
Read more: https://vunvulearadu.blogspot.ro/2017/09/is-security-and-data-privacy-important.html