Fitness trackers are all the rage right now, but there’s one aspect of fitness tracking most people never think about - the tracking part. Just like a cellphone or any other tracking device, a fitness tracker logs data related to your whereabouts (or past whereabouts). In other words, your fitness tracker could work against you!
A St. Petersburg Case
Currently, the information logged by a fitness tracker is being used as part of a court case. A Florida woman claimed that she was raped while staying at her boss’s house, but her fitness tracker shows that she did not do the things she claimed to do the night prior.
This woman claimed to be sleeping the night before the attack, but her tracker data shows that she was up and walking around all night - police suspect she was staging the scene of the crime.
This is just one case where fitness trackers are being used to hold people accountable. The data that tracker logs can be used against someone in a court of law, and more and more this is what’s happening.
Used as Proof Too
Fitness trackers might be able to help you when it comes to proving limited mobility too. A good example is a case happening in Canada right now. A few years ago, a woman was injured in an accident. This accident drastically cut down on her mobility.
Her lawyer is currently trying to show a court just how limited she is by showing the data logged on her fitness tracker - the amount of mobility she has right now is far below what someone her age should be able to do. Data from fitness trackers can be used in court in this manner as well, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
Keeping Your Data Safe
There are some concerns about the safety and privacy of fitness trackers too. Not only can these trackers be used for accountability purposes, but it’s also possible that the data stored in a tracker might be widely available to the right hacker.
So just how safe is your fitness tracker? It is recommended that you use your tracker when you plan to be active, but remove it when you are at home. Of course, this somewhat defeats the purpose of tracking all of your steps in one day, but it might protect you against hacks.
The bottom line here is to understand that any device developed to track your movements does just that - this kind of data is recorded at all times. If you keep this important detail in mind, fitness trackers can be used safely.
