FYI: Pedometers sponsored by health programs are tracking devices

[randay]

tape meter to car wheel.
do a burnout.
???
profit.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

I'd literally put this thing on a bicycle wheel and start pedaling. Fuck em.

 

[PottedMeat]

Even better, intercept the outgoing data and manipulate it before sending... show your path walking across Lake Michigan or in the house of the owner of the tracking business when he is not home, but his wife is.

a GPS in a company provided pedometer = criminal's ankle monitor = media shitstorm.

it's probably not that difficult to fake the data if they're using a cheap MEMS sensor. you'd have to get around whatever filters block false positive movement. maybe stick it on something that rotates at ~60 rpm.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Follow the money trail.

I am doubt this has ANYTHING to do with Obamacare and the 20,000 pages that were NOT read in terms of healthcare and corporate liability...

 

[Phoenix86]

we sniffed the data that is getting sent and it contains all the information about the PC that got the info from the pedometer. stuff like Name, Ram, disk space, IP settings, programs installed and other data that frankly is none of the monitoring sites business.

What else did it track? How did you sniff it (unencrypted)?

I'll bet your company has no idea all this other data is getting collected and they might actually care if they did.

I agree with others, collect the info and pass it along to others, make a story out of it.

 

[yuchai]

Wow..you guys way overestimate the value of your data. I don't think anybody gives a shit about how many steps you took or what the stats of your PC is.....

Do you guys even realize why companies are doing this? All they want to do is to get their employees (and potentially dependents) to actually not sit on their asses all day and getting unhealthy and costing them higher medical claims costs. Most companies that are doing this are large companies and are paying directly and taking the risk for the medical claims of their own employees & their dependents (known as self-insuring). Any claims costs that they can reduce are direct savings to the company. If these programs can help save even small percent of their medical spend, that's huge deal for them because as you all know, health care costs have been skyrocketing. They are not out there to get you...

Now, there are obviously good or bad 3rd party suppliers. In this case, it appears they are tracking some information that they should not. Not ideal - but all that conspiracy theory about the government or employers is pretty much unfounded.

 

[Phoenix86]

Then why are they collecting the other data?

 

[lxskllr]

Not ideal - but all that conspiracy theory about the government or employers is pretty much unfounded.

It's absolutely founded. When you release data, you don't get it back. There's no re-dos, and you don't get a second chance. You do it right the first time, and protect yourself against potentialities.

 

[Deeko]

I'd literally put this thing on a bicycle wheel and start pedaling. Fuck em.

As someone that *gasp* voluntarily wears a fitbit, and both runs and bikes - you get a lot more points for walking / jogging than you do biking. So the jokes on you if you think you're cheating the system.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

As someone that *gasp* voluntarily wears a fitbit, and both runs and bikes - you get a lot more points for walking / jogging than you do biking. So the jokes on you if you think you're cheating the system.

I'll never have one of these, so I'm not worried. It was a suggestion for the OP.

Maybe attaching it to the rim of your car? Ride around the block a few times?

 

[TwiceOver]

So they are logging your step count and the specs of the computer the data was uploaded from? I don't really consider that tracking. To each their own I guess.