Smart watch

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Proud to be erratic said:
Or better not to Google such sites. Artificial Intelligence (AI) will pick up your search, interpret that as an expression of interest, link that 'expression of interest' to a huge array of sites wanting to sell you stuff and set your account as an opportunity for the world to pester you to buy their stuff and for scammers to target you.

I bought a pair of trousers from Wowcher about 3 yrs ago. A huge mistake. Correct label inside for what I'd ordered, but no resemblance to the tried and trusted size I wanted! I tried and tried to return them and get my money back, but wrestled with questionnaires about what was actually wrong until eventually they said one of my answers had stated the product was OK and no return was possible. In practice the fixed questions provided no opportunity to explain the problem of wrong actual size. The label was correct so the trousers were correct as far as Wowcher were concerned!! Wowcher's techniques make the DVLA ambiguities in its licence renewal process seem acceptable. It took a further 3+ months to get Wowcher emails, notifications and "appearances"within almost every Web search I made finally cleaned out of my phone and synced tablet. Their processes seem friendly and innocuous; WRONG. They are devious, pervasive and right on the cusp of fraudulent. AI makes it easy for them to do this - this is the price of technical progress.
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You mean tracking? All you have to do is clear your cookies! I did post grad in Business Information Technology. I use my iPad and all I have to do is clear my history! Which isn’t a bad idea. Companies are always latching on to users. Reputable companies can be the worst. You can use a VPN if you’re worried about security. I am tech savvy for my grand old age! It’s good for days out and spas with discounts. People are just trying to make a living and they do have a return service or refund and keep the items. Better known companies like eBay are using companies in Asia for example. Delivery takes ages and often the goods are shoddy. I also use PayPal where it’s available and they get my money refunded. I am in a dispute just now with Curry’s as they haven’t refunded me for an item. Use a VPN and clear your tracking better still, reject cookies! I checked my credit reference recently and do you know that all my searches for travel and house insurance was on it! Everything we do leaves an internet footprint ! I keep adding to this. It’s the same with a store loyalty card. I use Sainsbury’s / Nectar and they give me smart shop offers on what I bought previously. I bet they can tell a lot more about me than what I purchase. My average income is just one thing. We’re not invisible and don’t really have privacy any more. How many times have we gone to a site and it says”
based on what we searched recently?”
 
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Jinty2001 said:
It has other uses.
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Barely. I'd rather use a Xiaomi Band or similar which is functional in the things it claims to do. (Not necessarily that accurate. I think most of them aren't that great at sleep tracking or step counting compared to the best available.)
 
Bruce Stephens said:
Barely. I'd rather use a Xiaomi Band or similar which is functional in the things it claims to do. (Not necessarily that accurate. I think most of them aren't that great at sleep tracking or step counting compared to the best available.)
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That’s one of the really cheap offers from £8 and not accurate either
 
Jinty2001 said:
That’s one of the really cheap offers from £8 and not accurate either
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What is the Mii Band inaccurate at?
I used to use one as a step counter and found it more accurate than a dedicated one like Garmin.
It wasn't bad for Heart Rate checking either.
Plus I was able to send my Libre Readings to it.
 
@Jinty2001,
I am far from "tech clever", so some of what is going on behind the screen is not just invisible to me but also unimaginable for me. But I did clear the cache for both my phone and tablet early on in my attempts to stop the deluge of unwanted notification/emails and messages. I deleted a bunch of unwanted apps and generally did a lot of phone and tablet maintenance - REPEATEDLY. Not a bad thing in itself, but shouldn't have been needed. But from my layman perspective that was simply too late. They had postal and email addresses, a phone number, my name and that was data they could continue to use to elwctronically pester me. Even as I uninstalled rheir app that I put on my phone, they advised me the disconnect from them would take so-many days to have full effect. My age could be interpreted by them that I was vulnerable and/or gullible and if their bombardment could produce a 2nd sale - good news for them.

I am aware of the existence and possible potential of having a VPN. But installing and setting that up feels outside my skillset or confidence. Such confidence is not just in the setting up but also into how reliable the end product is in doing what it's supposed to do as well as how long will it protect me? These days very little is what is shown on the outer packaging.

Then there seems to be an annual cost commitment for VPN and I sort of begrudge having to pay for that protection. Car and house insurance is costly enough and both are way above the rate of inflation. I sort of imagine that blatant fraudsters need and use VPN; as do Politicians if the recent Public enquiry has truthfully revealed. Should I have to join them on that doorstep to get personal digital protection?

I'm not sure what finally stopped the W*****r deluge, but my wife will attest to the frustration I experienced and my constant loud screams about yet another trawl by W*****r for their custom. In fact I'm almost paranoid about even typing their name into this post, for fear they will find me again; I moved 6+ months ago and if they resurface on my phone my paranoia will be proved justifiable.
 
Bruce Stephens said:
That was me, I think.
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I used it to test immediately after my meal last night and it was 5.8 I used the finger prick at the same time and it was 10.8 it’s quite a big discrepancy especially if I was 10.8 on the watch and almost double with the finger prick! I have read people saying they don’t find the libre accurate . I would imagine it is similar technology to the ogre. It might become more accurate with new tech. My BP it is nearer the BP monitor but not exact. Then again we know that BP trading change from one test to the next anyway. Is generated a good discussion on the use f them fur medical accuracy or the lack of it. I see someone else who posted on this post has posted another thread on the same topic. The watch dues have other uses like music
 
Proud to be erratic said:
@Jinty2001,
I am far from "tech clever", so some of what is going on behind the screen is not just invisible to me but also unimaginable for me. But I did clear the cache for both my phone and tablet early on in my attempts to stop the deluge of unwanted notification/emails and messages. I deleted a bunch of unwanted apps and generally did a lot of phone and tablet maintenance - REPEATEDLY. Not a bad thing in itself, but shouldn't have been needed. But from my layman perspective that was simply too late. They had postal and email addresses, a phone number, my name and that was data they could continue to use to elwctronically pester me. Even as I uninstalled rheir app that I put on my phone, they advised me the disconnect from them would take so-many days to have full effect. My age could be interpreted by them that I was vulnerable and/or gullible and if their bombardment could produce a 2nd sale - good news for them.

I am aware of the existence and possible potential of having a VPN. But installing and setting that up feels outside my skillset or confidence. Such confidence is not just in the setting up but also into how reliable the end product is in doing what it's supposed to do as well as how long will it protect me? These days very little is what is shown on the outer packaging.

Then there seems to be an annual cost commitment for VPN and I sort of begrudge having to pay for that protection. Car and house insurance is costly enough and both are way above the rate of inflation. I sort of imagine that blatant fraudsters need and use VPN; as do Politicians if the recent Public enquiry has truthfully revealed. Should I have to join them on that doorstep to get personal digital protection?

I'm not sure what finally stopped the W*****r deluge, but my wife will attest to the frustration I experienced and my constant loud screams about yet another trawl by W*****r for their custom. In fact I'm almost paranoid about even typing their name into this post, for fear they will find me again; I moved 6+ months ago and if they resurface on my phone my paranoia will be proved justifiable.
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Every time we send an email they sell our information. There are discs companies buy and they have our email addresses on it. They send out bulk emails. Like throwing out a lot of darts to see if any will stick. Some of the email addresses have fallen out of use. That’s why you’re told not to reply to them as it lets them know there’s someone using the email address. Loads of the spam is from the US or other countries and the products not relevant to us.
The recent trend is to make us aware that our passwords have been cracked and there’s lists of them. A question yesterday. 90% of passwords have been broken into. Security is an illusion and my passwords are on the discs.i I can add or change letters or make new ones but chances are they’re already broken . Yes there are subscriptions to VPN. Loads of free trials but you must remember to end the subscription after or they will charge you a full membership. I use IPvanish. It was about £17 for 3 years. It hides our IP address in hotels and public internet sites. I also use it to access my paid subscription to Netflix and British TV abroad. I can get any countries Netflix from the UK! Although between television in my own country and streaming sites I have enough to watch and very little time to do so.
It’s virtually easy to use with almost download and play and nothing hidden, choose your country you want to watch or hide If you have some old tech you could use it to try. A old phone or old iPad. Some VPNs aren’t suitable as the website you’re accessing picks it up and your IP address isn’t hidden. Yes criminals use it on the dark web. It virtually sends your IP address to a satélite hits off it and it uses another IP address or several before it hits the source and your IP address has been changed several times and untraceablele! It’s a very basic understanding of how the dark web works although I’m not a user of the dark web.
It also hides your IP address for checking your bank account abroad or in vulnerable places which is handy if you need to withdraw cash on holiday. I haven’t kept up with recent developments. My info is years old and there’s more technology developed but they wait until they’ve recouped the money for R&D before they issue new technology onto the markets. There’s tech we could never even dream about. There used to be some awful malware got downloaded with Windows and I can’t remember the names of them. One had a dragon on the bottom of your monitor. You had to get your computer wiped to get rid of them
 
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At least the Libre and Dexom, validated medical devices globally.
 
helli said:
What is the Mii Band inaccurate at?
I used to use one as a step counter and found it more accurate than a dedicated one like Garmin.
It wasn't bad for Heart Rate checking either.
Plus I was able to send my Libre Readings to it.
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They say non of them are accurate but the £8 ones don’t have full features of the more expensive ones you can research for yourself. I would recommend that if you have one to do what I did and do a finger prick test and a watch test at the same time and check if there’s a difference. The same if you have a BP. Monitor to use both and see if there’s a difference. Not all watches are equal. I’m tired out now and unwatching the subject
 
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Jinty2001 said:
Every time we send an email they sell our information. There are discs companies buy and they have our email addresses on it. They send out bulk emails. Like throwing out a lot of darts to see if any will stick. Some of the email addresses have fallen out of use. That’s why you’re told not to reply to them as it lets them know there’s someone using the email address. Loads of the spam is from the US or other countries and the products not relevant to us.
The recent trend is to make us aware that our passwords have been cracked and there’s lists of them. A question yesterday. 90% of passwords have been broken into. Security is an illusion and my passwords are on the discs.i I can add or change letters or make new ones but chances are they’re already broken . Yes there are subscriptions to VPN. Loads of free trials but you must remember to end the subscription after or they will charge you a full membership. I use IPvanish. It was about £17 for 3 years. It hides out IP address in hotels and public internet sites. I also use it to access my paid subscription to Netflix and British TV abroad. I can get any countries Netflix from the UK! Although between television in my own country and streaming sites I have enough to watch and very little time to do so.
It’s virtually easy to use with almost download and play and nothing hidden, choose your country you want to watch or hide If you have some old tech you could use it to try. A old phone or old iPad. Some VPNs aren’t suitable as the website you’re accessing picks it up and your IP address isn’t hidden. Yes criminals use it on the dark web. It virtually sends your IP address to a satélite hits off it and it uses another IP address or several before it hits the source and your IP address has been changed several times and untraceablele! It’s a very basic understanding of how the dark web works although I’m not a user of the dark web.
It also hides your IP address for checking your bank account abroad or in vulnerable places which is handy if you need to withdraw cash on holiday. I haven’t kept up with recent developments. My info is years old and there’s more technology developed but they wait until they’ve recouped the money for R&D before they issue new technology onto the markets. There’s tech we could never even dream about. There used to be some awful malware got downloaded with Windows and I can’t remember the names of them. One had a dragon on the bottom of your monitor. You had to get your computer wiped to get rid of them
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Imagine if/when they manage to hook into healthcare devices like the Libre or Dexcom. They could easily kill.
 
Dishevelled said:
Imagine if/when they manage to hook into healthcare devices like the Libre or Dexcom. They could easily kill.
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How? CGMs like Libre and Dexcom only read information. Unlike insulin pumps, they cannot make any changes to our body like give us too much insulin.
However, I can imagine health insurance companies gathering BG data and using this to determine premiums. Kind of like we can chose to buy car insurance that monitors the way we drive and determine the car insurance premiums.
 
helli said:
How? CGMs like Libre and Dexcom only read information. Unlike insulin pumps, they cannot make any changes to our body like give us too much insulin.
However, I can imagine health insurance companies gathering BG data and using this to determine premiums. Kind of like we can chose to buy car insurance that monitors the way we drive and determine the car insurance premiums.
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Yes, I was thinking in conjunction with a pump.
 
helli said:
How? CGMs like Libre and Dexcom only read information. Unlike insulin pumps, they cannot make any changes to our body like give us too much insulin.
However, I can imagine health insurance companies gathering BG data and using this to determine premiums. Kind of like we can chose to buy car insurance that monitors the way we drive and determine the car insurance premiums.
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It would be the app that would get hacked
 
Jinty2001 said:
It would be the app that would get hacked
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But, if the app is only reading BG from Libre or Dexcom. it cannot kill you - just share data you may not want to.
Sure, a pump could be hacked but it is not easy to do so (there are safety protocols in place) and most of the things that stop user error (e.g. maximum insulin dose) would stop a hack from killing you.
If the risk was not incredibly small, insulin pumps would not be approved for use.
 
helli said:
But, if the app is only reading BG from Libre or Dexcom. it cannot kill you - just share data you may not want to.
Sure, a pump could be hacked but it is not easy to do so (there are safety protocols in place) and most of the things that stop user error (e.g. maximum insulin dose) would stop a hack from killing you.
If the risk was not incredibly small, insulin pumps would not be approved for use.
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Not my question tbh
 
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