
Amazfit Powerbuds Pro
Amazfit is a Chinese brand that makes wearables like fitness trackers and these smart earbuds. And not gonna lie, these earbuds sounds kinda cool. They play music, of course, but they also monitor and track your exercise with things like speed, distance, calories burned, and heart rate. They sense when you're working out and increase the bass and beats of your music to get your butt in gear. They have noise cancellation, they're water and dust resistant, and they say their battery lasts up to 30 hours. They even offer something called "cervical spine posture reminders," which, no idea what that actually is, but, it sounds like your Mom telling you to stand up straight. Who doesn't want your Mom in a pair or earbuds? All of this happens with the help of the Zepp Health app which means beware of the app's data collection policies.
What could happen if something goes wrong?
Amazfit doesn’t inspire confidence in us when it comes to protecting their users’ privacy. First, they make it extremely hard to find the privacy policy that applies to this device. The privacy policy linked on the Amazfit website where you can shop and buy these devices has a note at the top that clearly states, the privacy policy doesn’t actually apply to Amazfit devices, which is weird. It says, “An Important Note: This Privacy Notice does not apply to any of the personal information that Huami products or services process (e.g., Amazfit products, Mi Fit, etc.).” So, you link to a privacy policy on your website that doesn’t apply to the products on your website. That’s odd. We did eventually find a link to a privacy policy on the Zepp App (formerly known as Amazfit) page in the Google Play store. Very confusing and not user-friendly at all
Second, Amazfit and the Zepp App are made by the Chinese company Huami, which also makes similar tech for Xiaomi. The privacy policy states that “HUAMI may disclose your personal data to Xiaomi or other Mi Ecosystem companies so as to provide you with and improve existing products and services.” Xiaomi is a Chinese company that came under fire in 2020 when researchers reportedly found Xiaomi was secretly collecting users' data during private web browsing and phone use.
All of this is concerning wireless earbuds that collects a whole lot of personal data on users. They do give users the option to opt out of having their personal data used for marketing, which is good. One other thing to consider. Huami is a Chinese company and clearly states in their privacy policy that “national security requests” can result in the disclosure of personal information. That raises questions about personal data being disclosed to the Chinese government that are still murky.
Tips to protect yourself
- Be very careful who you chose to share your wellness data with.
- Don't connect your app to any social networks like Facebook.
- Consider using your headphones without connecting it to an app. This way, you may decrease amount of data collected
Can it snoop on me?
Camera
Device: No
App: Yes
Microphone
Device: Yes
App: No
Tracks location
Device: Yes
App: Yes
What can be used to sign up?
Yes
Phone
No
Third-party account
No
What data does the company collect?
Personal
Email, phone number, gender, date of birth
Body related
Heart rate, voice
Social
How does the company use this data?
How can you control your data?
What is the company’s known track record of protecting users’ data?
No known incidents in the last 3 years.
Can this product be used offline?
User-friendly privacy information?
Amazfit made it very difficult to find the correct privacy policy
Links to privacy information
Does this product meet our Minimum Security Standards?
Encryption
Strong password
Security updates
Manages vulnerabilities
Privacy policy
Dive Deeper
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Ignore China’s New Data Privacy Law at Your PerilWired
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