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By Jon Fingas, Engadget
Strava isn't the only fitness tech company grappling with the security implications of its fitness tracking. Bellingcat and De Correspondent have discovered
that Polar's Flow social platform can reveal the homes of soldiers and
intelligence officials with little effort. As it shows all of a given
person's published workouts on one map, you only have to find a
sensitive installation (such as a military base or spy agency), pick
someone who uses a Polar fitness tracker
and then see if they have any workouts that end at a residence. Many of
these people use their real names and tend to end workouts in front of
their homes or hotels, making it easy to correlate their fitness info
with social network profiles and other telltale data.
To
its credit, Polar has already responded to the concerns. It temporarily
suspended Flow's "explore" functionality and has been developing
methods for keeping privacy under control, such as an option to clear
your entire workout history at once.
Still, the findings suggest
that the fitness tracking industry has yet to fully address the privacy
concerns surrounding their devices. Companies like Polar and Strava have
tended to focus on making fitness info widely accessible to foster
their communities and drive sales, not on ensuring that people only
reveal info to those they trust. Until there's a broader shift in
attitudes, exercise mavens may want to double-check what they're sharing
with social platforms and hold off if they're uncomfortable.
Bellingcat
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The
researchers said they compiled a list of roughly 6,500 users, including
soldiers in volatile areas (such as Baghdad or the Korean DMZ), NSA
workers and the CEO of a manufacturing firm. It's easy to understand the
security risks based on that list -- terrorists could use this to
attack or kidnap high-profile targets at their most vulnerable.Bellingcat
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