blog/archive/2018/08/08.rss

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   4                 <title>Petter Reinholdtsen - Entries from August 2018</title>
   5                 <description>Entries from August 2018</description>
   6                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/</link>
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   9         <item>
  10                 <title>A bit more on privacy respecting health monitor / fitness tracker</title>
  11                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_bit_more_on_privacy_respecting_health_monitor___fitness_tracker.html</link>
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  13                 <pubDate>Mon, 13 Aug 2018 09:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
  14                 <description>&lt;p&gt;A few days ago, I wondered if there are any privacy respecting
  15 health monitors and/or fitness trackers available for sale these days.
  16 I would like to buy one, but do not want to share my personal data
  17 with strangers, nor be forced to have a mobile phone to get data out
  18 of the unit.  I&#39;ve received some ideas, and would like to share them
  19 with you.
  20
  21 One interesting data point was a pointer to a Free Software app for
  22 Android called
  23 &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge/&quot;&gt;Gadgetbridge&lt;/a&gt;.
  24 It provide cloudless collection and storing of data from a variety of
  25 trackers.  Its
  26 &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge/#supported-devices&quot;&gt;list
  27 of supported devices&lt;/a&gt; is a good indicator for units where the
  28 protocol is fairly open, as it is obviously being handled by Free
  29 Software.  Other units are reportedly encrypting the collected
  30 information with their own public key, making sure only the vendor
  31 cloud service is able to extract data from the unit.  The people
  32 contacting me about it said they were using
  33 &lt;a href=&quot;https://us.amazfit.com/shop/bip?variant=336750&quot;&gt;Amazfit
  34 Bip&lt;/a&gt; and
  35 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.xiaomimi6phone.com/xiaomi-mi-band-3-features-release-date-rumors/&quot;&gt;Xiaomi
  36 Band 3&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  37
  38 &lt;p&gt;I also got a suggestion to look at some of the units from Garmin.
  39 I was told their GPS watches can be connected via USB and show up as a
  40 USB storage device with
  41 &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gpsbabel.org/htmldoc-development/fmt_garmin_fit.html&quot;&gt;Garmin
  42 FIT files&lt;/a&gt; containing the collected measurements.  While
  43 proprietary, FIT files apparently can be read at least by
  44 &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gpsbabel.org&quot;&gt;GPSBabel&lt;/a&gt; and the
  45 &lt;a href=&quot;https://apps.nextcloud.com/apps/gpxpod&quot;&gt;GpxPod&lt;/a&gt; Nextcloud
  46 app.  It is unclear to me if they can read step count and heart rate
  47 data.  The person I talked to was using a Garmin
  48 &lt;a href=&quot;https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/564291&quot;&gt;Garmin Forerunner
  49 935&lt;/a&gt;, which is a fairly expensive unit.  I doubt it is worth it for
  50 a unit where the vendor clearly is trying its best to move from open
  51 to closed systems.  I still remember when Garmin dropped NMEA support
  52 in its GPSes.&lt;/p&gt;
  53
  54 &lt;p&gt;A final idea was to build ones own unit, perhaps by basing it on a
  55 wearable hardware platforms like
  56 &lt;a href=&quot;https://learn.adafruit.com/flora-geo-watch&quot;&gt;the Flora Geo
  57 Watch&lt;/a&gt;.  Sound like fun, but I had more money than time to spend on
  58 the topic, so I suspect it will have to wait for another time.&lt;/p&gt;
  59
  60 &lt;p&gt;While I was working on tracking down links, I came across an
  61 inspiring TED talk by Dave Debronkart about
  62 &lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/DavedeBronkart_2010X&quot;&gt;being a
  63 e-patient&lt;/a&gt;, and discovered the web site
  64 &lt;a href=&quot;https://participatorymedicine.org/epatients/&quot;&gt;Participatory
  65 Medicine&lt;/a&gt;.  If you too want to track your own health and fitness
  66 without having information about your private life floating around on
  67 computers owned by others, I recommend checking it out.&lt;/p&gt;
  68
  69 &lt;p&gt;As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
  70 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
  71 &lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&quot;&gt;15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  72 </description>
  73         </item>
  74
  75         <item>
  76                 <title>Privacy respecting health monitor / fitness tracker?</title>
  77                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Privacy_respecting_health_monitor___fitness_tracker_.html</link>
  78                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Privacy_respecting_health_monitor___fitness_tracker_.html</guid>
  79                 <pubDate>Tue, 7 Aug 2018 16:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
  80                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Dear lazyweb,&lt;/p&gt;
  81
  82 &lt;p&gt;I wonder, is there a fitness tracker / health monitor available for
  83 sale today that respect the users privacy?  With this I mean a
  84 watch/bracelet capable of measuring pulse rate and other
  85 fitness/health related values (and by all means, also the correct time
  86 and location if possible), which is &lt;strong&gt;only&lt;/strong&gt; provided for
  87 me to extract/read from the unit with computer without a radio beacon
  88 and Internet connection.  In other words, it do not depend on a cell
  89 phone app, and do make the measurements available via other peoples
  90 computer (aka &quot;the cloud&quot;).  The collected data should be available
  91 using only free software.  I&#39;m not interested in depending on some
  92 non-free software that will leave me high and dry some time in the
  93 future.  I&#39;ve been unable to find any such unit.  I would like to buy
  94 it.  The ones I have seen for sale here in Norway are proud to report
  95 that they share my health data with strangers (aka &quot;cloud enabled&quot;).
  96 Is there an alternative?  I&#39;m not interested in giving money to people
  97 requiring me to accept &quot;privacy terms&quot; to allow myself to measure my
  98 own health.&lt;/p&gt;
  99
 100 &lt;p&gt;As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 101 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 102 &lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&quot;&gt;15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
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