As we should know ‘smart’ watches have been around for a while, where they have really been taken up by the mainstream ‘consumers’ for over a decade now.
Their telemetrics have increased significantly over the years, where now even some sensors are gaining certification as medical tools.
Heart rate is child’s play now, where Sp02 (saturation of peripheral oxygen), ECG (electrocardiogram) and ‘body battery’ terms are becoming the new normal.
While one can obtain whatever information one desires with regards to the functioning/accuracy of smart watches from a plethora of successful reviewers on social media, one of the most important aspects is (deliberately?) left out, that being privacy.
It seems that they’re just corporate whores, sponsored by the corporations to spruik their wares, but that would just be a conspiracy theory, right?
While one can read the multinational’s ‘privacy policy’ when installing the companion app to their smart watch, and be besotted by their terminology and (alleged) data privacy policy all this is ‘smoke and mirrors’.
Do you know why?
They have your data, you are not in control of it’s flow, and your personal information must be given in the companion app before the smartwatch is usable to you, otherwise you will not be able to see ‘your’ data, the data you create/generate.
Can these corporations program the app without obtaining your exact location or email address or phone number?
Of course they can, but the don’t want to, or have a secret agreement with agencies not to, as we now live in a surveillance capitalism world within the 5eyes, 9eyes and 14eyes countries.
As always the humble serf (en masse, of course) can change the ways of corporations, but that would require a little bit of work, and we know how lazy the serfs really are, remembering that their silence is acquiescence.
One way to make that change is by quite simply ‘voting’ with your wallet, i.e not purchasing the product that the corporation ‘requires’ your data, and stating that to them.
Not all is lost though, as ‘hackers’ or rather programmers have been looking into the ins and outs of smart watches and have created apps that do not require the use of the internet to use the smartwatch with your phone in order to access that data that you create.
One such app that is open source which can function with a few brands is called Gadgetbridge, which is only available for the Android operating system smartphone.
We do not recommend the use of any Apple devices if your privacy is a concern, irrespective of their marketing jargon.
There are also other smart watch manufacturers that have companion apps that can be used without a login, but that’s a hit and miss scenario.
