Health monitoring devices are firmly in the mainstream.
These products can help you stay motivated and aware of your health.
But they may share more data than you think.
What Data Is Found on Health & Fitness Devices?
The specific things tracked by health and fitness wearables vary depending on the manufacturer.
However, youll usually findthese trackers collect certain health data pointsby default.
Activity Level
Fitness trackers measure this metric in various ways.
Some determine what percentage of your day involves movement versus sitting.
Others calculate the number of steps you took or how many calories you burned.
Sleep Quality
People often say how well you sleep determines your preparedness for the next day.
Youve almost certainly experienced that claim playing out in your life.
But what determines whether you feel well-rested or groggy after waking?
Health and fitness trackers can often tell you.
Many devices also break down the details of how long you spend in each sleep phase.
Thats why many fitness tracker watch features increasingly relate to stress management.
Some devices have mood-tracking features, helping you notice trends.
Plus, the data collected during a doctors visit only represents a snapshot in time.
Since fitness trackers provide 24/7 monitoring, they can pick up on things a physicians exam might not.
Many fitness trackersallow you to share statistics with a doctor.
Thats particularly helpful if youve noticed something worrisome but your provider didnt find anything amiss during your office visit.
However, these motivators can adversely affect some people.
Eating disorders may develop or worsen when individuals pay too much attention to calories consumed or burned.
Some people also feel guilty if they dont meet specific fitness goals.
How Secure Is Your Data?
Data protection and third-party access sometimes become murky regarding health and fitness data.
Why is data privacy important for matters relating to your well-being?
Because the lack of it may reveal personal details to companies or individuals without your knowledge.
For example, its usually possible to instruct the organization whether or not to share things about you.
However, the business still has some limited circumstances allowing it to provide data to others without your permission.
Fitbit challenges, for example, fall outside the scope ofFitbit’s privacy policy.
By participating in one, details like your profile photo, step count, and achievements become public.
Plus, fitness tracker data is valuable for researchers learning about differences in socioeconomic groups.
In that case, participants agreed to donate their Fitbit data to further scientific research.
Ways to Protect Your Privacy
Every health and fitness tracker manufacturer has different privacy policies.
Take the time to read them and learn how to enable or disable specific features.
Its also good to ask yourself why you share certain things.
One writer forStylistrevealed how disabling social-sharing features can actually have a motivational effect.
Are you sharing statistics about a workout for bragging rights?
Do you really want people to know exactly which running route you chose on a particular day?
Some users rightfully feel such details invade their privacy.
Become familiar with what you share, and learn how to turn it on and off for better control.
The answer suggested everything from old-fashioned pedometers to modern fitness gadgets that allow disabling data collection.
Consider what benefits you get by sharing data.
Then, weigh those against the possible privacy tradeoffs.
Resist accepting the default privacy or sharing parameters.
Dig deeper and find out what each setting means, then tweak them if possible.
Being aware of that possibility and following the suggested strategies can help you strike a good balance.
