The FBI is promoting a home-workout app for people stuck indoors during the coronavirus outbreak. It also tracks your location and which WiFi networks you're using.
- The FBI has been promoting its fitness app to people stuck at home during the coronavirus outbreak.
- The app, FitTest, recommends routines for push-ups, sit-ups, and jogs. It also gathers information from people's phones, including location data and WiFi network information.
- The FBI's privacy policy states that users "are subject to having all of their activities monitored and recorded," but the FBI says the data it collects isn't personally identifiable.
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After millions of Americans were ordered to stay home to stop the spread of coronavirus this week, the FBI tweeted a suggestion: "Download the #FBI's Physical Fitness Test app to learn proper form for exercises you can do at home."
The FBI's workout app, called FitTest, offers a rudimentary interface that guides people through sit-ups, push-ups, and jogging routines. But the app also collects data from users' smartphones, including their location and the WiFi networks they connect to.
One Android user posted screenshots of the FitTest permissions in a tweet that was shared widely this week, noting the data the app was collecting. Business Insider confirmed that the app requests location and network data - per iOS and Android privacy functions, users have to manually grant permission to share location data before the app can track it.
The FitTest app is currently being promoted to people who are quarantined amid the coronavirus outbreak, but the app has been around for years. Privacy experts told CNBC in 2018 that the language in the FBI's privacy policies make it difficult to determine exactly what data the app collects.
The FBI says the data being collected is only stored within the app on user's phones. Users who download the app are greeted with a privacy statement that says personal information associated with the app "is not transmitted to, or saved by, the FBI."
But the app's privacy statement makes room for some tracking: When FitTest accesses pages from the official FBI website, it says, "fbi.gov's privacy policy applies." The fbi.gov privacy policy states that "individuals using this computer system are subject to having all of their activities monitored and recorded." The FitTest privacy statement doesn't explicitly state which app functions fall under the fbi.gov privacy policy and which do not.
An FBI spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.