These guys are trying to de-fang smart watches; maybe of interest to some of you.

https://www.gadgetbridge.org/

  • I find my apple watch a VERY useful addition to the IPhone (but I no longer trust Apple for either privacy or security) and am looking for a "partner" watch for my P7.

  • IMHO 't'would be good if GOS users started posting successes (and failures) using smart watches privately.

    f13a-6c3a
    Declining TOS is basically not an option on most things, because the product won't work if you don't accept it. That's a coercive practice since you've already purchased the product.

      f13a-6c3a Yes i did, you can stop Garmin from obtaining your information on the Connect app , if you do the app will be practically useless, you will be prone to enter your activity information manually ! and there will be no live readings of your health status !! and there will be no sleep tracking no stress tracking no pedometer, basically you can't have anything, that's why i said that we are forced to accept the agreement which not an agreement obviously. Ohh ! also i did read the privacy policy of Garmin and they stated it clearly that our information is not secure and can be shared with 3rd parties as Garmin sees that beneficial !.

      maximus87 No ! you can still download your data and visualize it offline and you can still not use the app and the watch works fine, the discussion here is about the Connect app and privacy, basically you can't use the app if you don't agree to send your data to Garmin and thats a shame for a company that market privacy as a central feature of their watches,they should give us the choice to share or don't our personal data with keeping the app useful but that's not the case unfortunately.

      abcZ Klaus Schwab made it very clear : " You will own nothing and you will be happy " !! and the people of this day & age will make it very easy and simple for him to achieve this goal unfortunately ! i was and Apple user but when a saw their practices of anti-repair campaigns and lobbying plus the change in their business model to an ads company i immediately ditched my Apple devices to a more secure and privacy oriented choices.

        Bouzenzel You're preaching to the choir. Always a pleasure to see other people with eyes open.

        newbie24689

        • About GOS : That's a great idea ! i would love to see that happening.
        • About the project : do you know if the T-REX is supported or not in Gadgetbridge !?

          Now I understand. I just tried the App and there is nothing to be done without creating an account... Bad design...

          9 days later

          So, I just set mine up with a tempmail (firefox addin) address, entered default info in airplane mode and then revoked network permission, it now works fine to control media playback (my fave feature). The tempmail only got a welcome to garmin email, no verification required. Steps update in the app offline fine. Garmin's sleep monitoring is for shit anyway (although more current models are apparently better, if not great, my VA3 is ~ 5 years old, still gets 3 days battery life tho). I'll get back to you with activities sometime, I do those via computer anyway. All in all, not that bad so far. It wants phone permissions etc, but that just lets you answer or decline on the watch, by which time I've picked it up. SMS allows a few canned responses, it's been useful on the occasional ride, but I'd prefer that to be me time. Anyway I declined those, we shall see.
          Oh, installed from aurora fine without any google services.

          If anyone follows my lead, if I'd thought about it longer I'd have turned on my VPN before registering, that'd be pretty damn anonymous. Oh well, they still aren't getting my data.

            I've been thinking about getting a garmin as it also seems to be the only way to use nfc payments with GOS. Apparently the only way to keep the data private is not using the app, though I'm not sure how functional doing everything from the watch screen would be.

              morphiak if you revoke network permission they get none of you, still Garmin is a good choice ...

              tripodchief it is fine if you wanna do everything from the watch, you can pretty much do everything and yes for payments Garmin is the best choice i know ...

              Bouzenzel I think you misunderstood me on this. I don't think they should hold my personal info either. However, you do accept a terms of service when using this product. There is currently not an open source smartwatch with a grapheneos equivalent. So, for now, you will need to accept the privacy risks of wearing a smartwatch. I understand you see it as you do but, that will not change how things are unless you get coding my friend!

              6 months later

              Bouzenzel are you able to get notifications on your Garmin watch (for calls and texts)? I'm unable to get it to work.

                a month later