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Old 04-16-21, 03:00 PM  
Vintage VFer
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Exclamation Insight Timer Data Mining!

I have the Insight Timer app on my iPhone. I used to have the paid version but decided that the free version was fine.

I was looking at it in the app store today. Apple has recently required apps to disclose what information they are extracting off of your phone. Insight Timer has the worst "Data Linked To You" policy that I have seen so far. Pretty much everything!

- Health & Fitness
- Location
- User Content
- Browsing History
- Usage Data
- Diagnostics - Purchases
- Contact Info
- Search History
- Identifiers
- Sensitive Info

Other apps only track a few items. This seems excessive to me. (Of course, I am paranoid about these things...)

Just FYI!
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Old 04-16-21, 03:24 PM  
wendug
 
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Yep. Free apps aren't really free. They have to make money somehow, so they collect and sell your info!
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Old 04-16-21, 06:44 PM  
Helen
 
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If something is free then YOU are the product.
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Old 04-17-21, 10:35 AM  
Vintage VFer
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wendug View Post
Yep. Free apps aren't really free. They have to make money somehow, so they collect and sell your info!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Helen View Post
If something is free then YOU are the product.
It doesn't seem to matter if an app is free or not. Your data will be extracted.

I went through most of my apps that disclose their policies. Some extract no data and most are reasonable.

I had a medical app that extracted tons of data linked to my personal identity.

Still, Insight Timer is the only one I had that extracted "Sensitive" data linked to me. Which is funny because an meditation app is supposed to relieve stress. In this case, it caused it. I deleted it for now.
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Old 04-17-21, 11:01 AM  
KarenJo
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How were some of the other meditation apps? I have been planning to get some meditation app but I do very, very few "extra" apps and hadn't gotten around to doing so. I really dislike being the product and don't use Apple products so can't check there myself.
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Old 04-17-21, 11:18 AM  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KarenJo View Post
How were some of the other meditation apps? I have been planning to get some meditation app but I do very, very few "extra" apps and hadn't gotten around to doing so. I really dislike being the product and don't use Apple products so can't check there myself.
I haven't tried the other ones. Some folks like "Calm."

https://www.calm.com/
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Old 04-17-21, 03:33 PM  
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I like Calm, and I purchase the yearly subscription. I use the ten minute daily meditation, and it helps me quite a bit. I don't use it as often as I should though!

They also have sleep stories, but I find I fall asleep better to a boring podcast, lol.
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Old 04-17-21, 04:40 PM  
lreidgreen
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Vintage VFer View Post
I have the Insight Timer app on my iPhone. I used to have the paid version but decided that the free version was fine.

I was looking at it in the app store today. Apple has recently required apps to disclose what information they are extracting off of your phone. Insight Timer has the worst "Data Linked To You" policy that I have seen so far. Pretty much everything!

- Health & Fitness
- Location
- User Content
- Browsing History
- Usage Data
- Diagnostics - Purchases
- Contact Info
- Search History
- Identifiers
- Sensitive Info
I just stopped my subscription with them too. I was not taking any of the courses and the intro price was going up. I now use it mainly for the timer although I sometimes listen to some of the music tracks to help me sleep.
I don't really understand how they can collect all the info listed above. How do they get Contact info, search history etc.? never mind sensitive info. What exactly do they consider sensitive and how is it accessed? Is the browsing history just from their app or is it from Google? I use Duck Duck Go as my search engine so I don't know if they can track that.
ETA: I have an android phone.
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Old 04-17-21, 04:44 PM  
mamaste
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KarenJo View Post
How were some of the other meditation apps? I have been planning to get some meditation app but I do very, very few "extra" apps and hadn't gotten around to doing so. I really dislike being the product and don't use Apple products so can't check there myself.
I use meditation podcasts. Just search your music and podcast apps.

If you need visuals, check YouTube.
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Old 04-17-21, 05:18 PM  
Pam
 
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I use DuckDuckGo for searching also and they say they are not passing information about us to on to any other source. But as it is a free app, I have wondered how they are making money.
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