this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2023
76 points (98.7% liked)

Privacy

32156 readers
782 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Related communities

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Recently got a Galaxy 4 smart watch gifted, but I am continuously getting barraged with (repeated) permission requests and hit with restrictions on features due to not granting certain permissions.

Is there an alternative that fulfills the following requirements:

  • respects my privacy by both, not storing my data on their servers and not selling my data, both health and identity data.
  • works with Android, i.e. Is not restricted in use by using Android as the Galaxy 4 apparently is.

I mainly want to use the watch to track sport sessions, basically just for running.

Are there any tips on how to keep my peace of mind when dealing with smart watches? Things to keep in mind, etc?

Thanks in advance!

all 12 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago

Take a look at the models that Gadgetbridge supports. Your data stays on your phone. There are no servers to connect to. You should have roughly the same experience on any Android device.

As for tracking sport sessions, look at what each model offers. I use it to sync my PineTime and Mi Smart Band 7.

I really like using the features that Mi Smart Band 7 has to offer AND knowing my data stays on my phone instead of going to servers in China.

Caveat: Recent Amazfit/Mi devices have needed you to set up the device in their proprietary app first to generate a pairing key.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Garmin devices are generally better, and some of them have features to keep data locally only. There's also an open source program that you can get to handle data from various smart devices, which might work if you keep yours or go with a different brand. I haven't tried the program and don't remember what it's called, but someone will probably chime in with it.

The Garmin devices are pretty solid as well. I got a mid range one that does all the health stuff I was looking for.

Also this is a nice starting point when exploring privacy respecting products in some category

https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Can't recommend the Bangle.js enough. Great piece of hardware! Fully usable and customizable software, even if you're not a software dev, as some people on the internet claim you have to be

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

I love the pinetime from pine64. It lacks some functionality but costs practically nothing (for a smart watch) and runs completely FOSS firmware and software (there may be a binary blob or something but nothing that would be a huge privacy concern imo.) You can also put a custom os on, including wasp-os which is written in MicroPython and you can find custom builds for various features. The new release of infinitime, the os it ships with, looks great too though.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well,u can try to use gadgetbridge.Maybe will work but not sure ur model quite new. https://codeberg.org/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge

U can sell it and buy pinetime https://www.pine64.org/pinetime/

Or buying from aliexpress watches like TTGO T-Watch which are based on ESP32 and u can customize and create own programs and like OS for them using Arduino IDE where u will controll all ur code of execution https://alii.pub/6px7zl

[–] akrot 0 points 1 year ago

Interesting bit about the TTGO!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Privacy and "SMART" anything is an oxymoron fyi., ESPECIALLY with Android.

[–] crashoverride 1 points 1 year ago

Cheap smart watches will do the trick