Smart sports gadgets are the must-have gadgets not just for athletes but also for the new generation, as well. The fitness trackers, smartwatches, and other wearables monitor everything from heart rate to steps you have taken throughout the day.
Further, this updates you about your health and fitness. At first, you don’t pay attention to who can view such data, but as they are connected to the internet, you must consider their privacy.
In this article, we are going to discuss the ways that you can protect your personal data while using smart sports gadgets and wearables. That’s to ensure that you keep taking good care of our privacy while you achieve your fitness goals.
Which Data Are Your Smart Sports Gadgets Collecting?
Before we take a look at how to safeguard your information over wearables. Let’s talk about which data your smart sports gadgets are collecting. So you can know why it’s important to secure them, from now onwards.
- Location: Using GPS technology, sports gadgets track your movements, sports activities and PE, your running routes, your daily routine, and even your home or office address.
- Health Data: This covers your heart rate records, sleep tracking, and physical activity counting. Also, your wearables collect sensitive information such as your weight, blood sugar, and any other health issues.
- Private Information: Many gadgets may ask you to enter personal details such as your name, email, address, payment information, and so on.
While using these gadgets you don’t pay much attention to which information that you have allowed to share with developers. Most tech users share their information knowingly or unknowingly because they don’t care or have no idea about how such information can be used for many purposes.
According to CG’s blog post, you can get more ideas on how these gadgets work how they collect your information, and to what extent they share.
How to Keep Your Sports Gadgets Private?
So now, we know which private information we are sharing through our sports wearables. Next, let’s discuss what you can do to secure your data while using smart wearables. Here are some helpful tips you can follow to use sports gadgets tension-free.
1. Check the ‘Privacy’ settings on your gadgets.
First of all, when you start using any type of sports gadget, be sure to refer to its privacy settings. Check if they are even providing privacy policy or relevant information. Most tech wearables and applications allow users to manage the type of data they share. This will give you a clear idea about whether the gadget or app is trustworthy or not based on the information they share and the transparency they have.
As a user, you have to be sure that all the data you share is used for the right purpose and not for any secret or third-party purpose. You can find this by reviewing the privacy policy or settings.
2. Have strong passwords or two-factor authentication.
A complex password is the simplest method to prevent hackers from accessing your data and accounts. Make sure to not have such obvious passwords as your birth date ABCD or 1234. Instead, get creative by combining upper and lower case letters, numbers, and special characters.
Now, sports gadgets and apps also provide two-factor authentication (2FA), which is an added level of security to use. By enabling, from next time you have to access your gadget with the code that is sent to your phone. The process of verification of your account is twice as hard for potential hackers when you use this 2FA, and you can keep your gadget protected.
3. Select trusted brands and don’t forget to check reviews.
Yes, you don’t want to use just any sports gadgets from just any brand. It always has to be from a popular and well-known brand. Because they care about their customers and their reputations. So they focus more on their privacy and leave no chance for their customer’s data security.
The same applies to applications you use with your gadgets. Before installing it, you want to refer to the reviews from the already users what their experience is, and how this app is good when it comes to privacy and data security.
4. Always keep your devices and apps updated.
Software updates are not just about adding new features but are also about the security of your data. App developers often offer updates to cover any threat or safety leakages, so always be sure your devices and apps are updated.
Go for the wearables that are branded and updated, you can also apply an automatic update to get frequent improvements. Along with the app, you also want to keep your gadget or device updated to safeguard them against any potential threats.
5. Limit the data you share with apps.
Sports applications are very helpful. But we should be very careful and decide how much we share. When you do not need some features, like location tracking, camera, or audio, you can just disable them.
The more data you share, and they are less protected, the more dangerous that is. So you always want to know which data apps or gadgets are collecting. Then, you should disable the option to not share such data that you don’t want to share.
6. Avoid using public Wi-Fi networks.
Public Wi-Fi connections are easily available but are very vulnerable. They might seem convenient but always easy to get hacked. When you’re using your sports gadgets or wearables, you should avoid using public Wi-Fi. This way you can stay away from hackers’ reach.
Well, you can use a public Wi-Fi network, by adding a Virtual Private Network (VPN). A trusted and secure VPN protects your internet connection and keeps your activities hidden. A VPN provides extra encryption so you can stay out of the direct reach of any hackers and threats.
Final Thoughts
Well, smart sports gadgets are a helpful technology to monitor your fitness and health, but you have to take the necessary steps to ensure your privacy, too.
By being proactive and looking at important privacy settings, you will continue to use your electronic gadget freely. Because such steps keep you protected against hackers who could intrude on your smart devices and use your private information.
Overall, becoming alert about your data privacy is very important as becoming fit. So, make sure you’re taking the right steps to protect your privacy while using sports tech. Stay smart, stay secure, and keep winning with your wearables.
