The Fitness organization Polar has been reported to have temporarily suspended its Universal activity map. This decision was triggered after several reports had pointed out some flaws in the privacy of the application. The settings were said to make it effortless for someone to track and locate the information of the user. This similarly echoed a privacy incident of another Fitness application that occurred at the beginning of the year. Privacy in the tech industry became quite contentious since the Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica saga. According to the company, it was a devastating discovery as one was capable of utilizing the content in locating the addresses and names of thousands of users who worked for the Intelligence services and the Military. The polar organization is known to produce multiple smart devices that include M430 running smartwatch, M600 smartwatch and the Polar Balance smart scale. All these devices are automatically connected to the Institution’s fitness application that is referred to as the Polar flow.
The Organizations devices all work simultaneously to record the user’s activity and weight that can also manifest themselves on the user’s online profile. Additionally, the user’s information can be added in the Explore. In the Explore, the consumers can opt that their information is kept private. The company reported that it prevents sharing the consumer’s information to third parties like the Facebook Company. After the joint Investigation, the Polar Company discovered that an individual could utilize the information from the company to locate nearby sensitive military sites. The Information can also be enough to locate the details of the user, i.e. addresses and the names. The investigations noted that the user’s activity was plotted on the Explore. The information included the activities of all military personnel that are fighting ISIS in Iraq.
After the reporters dug deep into the issue, they discovered that the Polar Explore could be able to keep records of the user’s activities from the year 2014. It also included the addresses and the names. Subsequently, it recorded personal information including the various Intelligence agencies and Military bases around the world. The ability of the Polar Explore to store information was able to locate more than 6,460 users who were using the service near the sensitive facilities like Military bases and Intelligence agencies. Every user was found to have committed the act. The reporters managed to use the identities of the users and their Cities to cross-reference the data to try to figure out their homes and addresses.
