Hacker News Reader

Comment by MereInterest | Hacker News Reader

How are they on privacy? The issue that I have is that every wearable device expects you to allow upload of sensitive information to their servers. At this point, especially with medical information such as heart rate, I do not trust it on any computer not covered by HIPAA or under my control.

View on HN

> The issue that I have is that every wearable device expects you to allow upload of sensitive information to their servers

This is not the case with the Apple Watch - your Health data lives and dies on your phone unless you back it up or choose to share it with other apps.

How do you know that? Have you examined the source code?

How far do you go with that? Have you examined your CPU with an electron microscope? What about the motherboard? Every peripheral? Where does it end? At some point you have to trust someone.

If you don't wear a smartwatch while out and about, how is your desktop CPU at home going to upload your heard rate or location to the cloud?

The only way to win is not to play?

Thank you. I lost.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Game_(mind_game)

Hopefully farther than nowhere. It seems like you're ignoring the dangers of proprietary software here entirely.

And don't forget to check the compiler code too..

And the compiler code that compiled the compiler.

Apple has a good history in respecting privacy. For example, if Facebook made a watch and claimed no data is sent from your watch to their servers, I would not believe in it. When Apple claims the same, I do believe it.

Or simply encrypt everything before it leaves the watch and decrypt client-side ala ProtonMail.

I believe most people, if given a discrete choice, would sacrifice 2% of battery life and "forgot your password?" features for the privacy of such information.

This is how HealthKit data works on iOS as long as you have two-factor authentication on for your iCloud account.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com