This article was published on July 3, 2011

Fitbit users are unwittingly sharing details of their sex lives with the world


Fitbit users are unwittingly sharing details of their sex lives with the world

Heard of Fitbit? Currently only available in the US, Fitbit’s tracker is a little gadget that automatically tracks data about a person’s activities, such as calories burned, sleep quality, steps and distance.

Being based in the UK, I have yet to try Fitbit personally but from my understanding, users are also able to manually add details of their activity for moments when wearing a Fitbit tracker isn’t appropriate, like sex.

Whether they know it or not, Fitbit users activity is set to public by default and a quick Google search provides a wealth of personal data about people’s sex lives. We’re not talking just date and time here, but effort given and even specifics like “kissing, hugging”.

While nowhere near is startling as finding your credit card details published on Google, this is perhaps a little too much information to be sharing with the world and something current and future users should know about.

If you’re a current Fitbit user and you track your sexual activity, might be worthwhile nipping in to your account settings and switching your profile to private. (H/T to Andy Baio for the spot)

UPDATE: It appears that Fitbit users’ profile data has now been removed from search results.

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