Fitness apps are selling your privacy – how to protect your data
After a busy week, I love a long run or hike to clear my head. MapMyWalk and AllTrails are my go-to apps for tracking steps and finding new spots to hike. Bet you’ve got your favorites, too. And while you’re sweating it out, those apps are soaking up your data.
About 80% of the top fitness apps share your info with third parties. Don’t stress just yet; I’ve done the heavy lifting to keep your privacy safe.
Counting more than your steps
Fitness app makers aren’t helping you get in shape out of the goodness of their hearts. They make money selling your info to advertisers. Some are way more data-hungry than others.
🥇 Fitbit and Strava (tied): They collect nearly twice as much data as most fitness trackers. Fitbit shares your contact info and email usage data with advertisers. Strava gives away your precise location. Say a few days a week you leave your house, hit a nice trail nearby, stop for coffee and walk home. Anyone with access to that data knows exactly where you are. It’s happened to CIA agents, who have tracked down President Biden and others this way.
🥈 Nike Training Club: Coming in at a close second, this app collects all location data within a city block. It also shares details like your race, sexual orientation, disability status, religion and biometric data. Yikes!
🥉 Runna: Like Strava, it shares your precise location and any “user content” like your photos, videos and purchase history.
If an app is free, your data is probably the real price you’re paying. Always dig into how the app makes its money. Usually, I’d rather pay a couple of bucks a month if it means they’re not selling off my data.
Time to check your app permissions
They tell your apps what they can or can’t access. Now, some apps need specific permissions to work correctly, like location info for tracking your run. Beyond the basics, it’s up to you.
- On Android: Head to Settings > Apps, then pick the app you want to change and tap Permissions. You’ll see what the app can access. Toggle off any permissions you don’t want it to have.
Want to do a general sweep? Go to Settings > Apps, hit the gear icon (top left), then tap Configure Apps > App permissions.
- On iPhone: Open Settings > Privacy & Security. Here, you’ll find what data your apps can see. Pick a category (like Microphone), and toggle off the apps you don’t want snooping.
✅ Pro tip: The Location Services feature lets you choose which apps can track you. Tap to set it to Always, While Using the App or Never. It’s your call; I give apps like MapMyWalk location access while I’m using it. Very few get the Always green light.
Sorry, but one-and-done won’t cut it. Check what data your apps are collecting every so often. Companies love to reset their app settings without notice or hide what they’re collecting in some other agreement.
Old-school still works
I’ve heard from lots of you who want to get more active but don’t love the idea of staring at your phone even more or buying an expensive smartwatch. Pedometers aren’t as clunky as they used to be!
- Super basic ($15.99, 20% off): Big numbers, not too large, and it clips onto your pocket or a lanyard.
- A little more info ($24.95, 38% off): This option is a little bigger but also displays your mileage and has a 30-day memory.
- Simple fitness watch ($29.99): This one’s great if you want to keep an eye on your fitness but don’t want to deal with an app. It doesn’t connect to your phone, and it just counts your steps, miles, calories burned (this will be an estimate) and a few other metrics.
💪 Know anyone who needs this info? Use the nice, handy share icons to spread the know-how. One of my friends just canceled his gym membership. He called it his too-weak notice.
Don’t get left tech-behind – Stay tech-ahead
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