There is literally no reason a fitness device could not do everything locally.

Would be interested in such a device if they were available.

The guide says of Fitbit Versa, "Shares your information with 3rd parties for unexpected reasons: yes". This is false.

The rating may just be by vote, but there's no excuse for getting the facts wrong.

Since the software is proprietary, and you are not making an official announcement on behalf of fitbit, why should we believe you? What you say directly contradicts the privacy policy[0] on your employer's website, which certainly states that they have the freedom to share your information 'with others': "You may also authorize us to share your information with others" and "We transfer information to our corporate affiliates, service providers, and other partners who process it for us"

0. https://www.fitbit.com/legal/privacy-policy#how-info-is-shar...

Providing data to third parties for processing is clearly different (and as an ex-user of one of Fitbit's products I definitely wouldn't have expected that this is the case -- Fitbit's fitness tracking is so core to the company that I wouldn't expect the processing of said data to be outsourced.) Yeah, it's in your privacy policy but that's just a cop-out (by that metric, no product can unexpectedly send data to third-parties).

Here's the whole paragraph:

We transfer information to our corporate affiliates, service providers, and other partners who process it for us, based on our instructions, and in compliance with this policy and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures. These partners provide us with services globally, including for customer support, information technology, payments, sales, marketing, data analysis, research, and surveys.

Do you have any particular insight as to why Fitbit still doesn't support the Apple Watch at all?

I've made my choice of wearable (mostly due to forgetting to take my Charge HR off when going swimming) and don't particularly want to be in a fitness-tracker-akimbo situation again.

The primary value proposition of the Fitbit app (to me) is the social/competition aspect. MobileTrack clocks in anywhere between 2000-9000 steps/day short compared to my watch or my old Fitbit (as I don't carry my phone everywhere I go).

I guess this might not be totally tangential to the sibling thread that followed, as I guess the reason is my activity data isn't valuable enough to Fitbit as a business, which relies primarily on equipment sales?

Eitherway, I'd love to keep using the Fitbit app. The competitions, the badges, they're all great, and way better than the Apple Watch's social/competition functions. Unfortunately, the rest of the product lineup no longer appeals now that I have the AW.

> How Information Is Shared

> We do not share your personal information except in the limited circumstances described below.

> For External Processing

> We transfer information to our corporate affiliates, service providers, and other partners (so, basically anybody) who process it for us, based on our instructions, and in compliance with this policy and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures. These partners provide us with services globally, including for customer support, information technology, payments, sales, marketing, data analysis, research (so we can ad target you), and surveys.

If I buy a gadget to track my personal exercise routine, it is definitely unexpected that my whereabouts are being monitored by advertising companies. Does Apple do the same with their fitness data on the watch?

You're free to speculate on the worst possible implications of their privacy policy too. Here's an excerpt from https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/en-ww/

Service Providers

Apple shares personal information with companies who provide services such as information processing, extending credit, fulfilling customer orders, delivering products to you, managing and enhancing customer data, providing customer service, assessing your interest in our products and services, and conducting customer research or satisfaction surveys. These companies are obligated to protect your information and may be located wherever Apple operates.