
Fitbit, why can’t I have my data? - KC8ZKF
http://simplystatistics.org/2013/01/02/fitbit-why-cant-i-have-my-data/
======
heyitsnick
I'm a huge fan of the entire Fitbit product; the hardware is a joy to use, it
has great apps for desktop and Android, sync is a breeze, the web app works
very well; the whole process has been excellent.

However, having spent close to €300 with the company (for the scale + ultra,
and recently upgraded to the Fitbit One), i was very disappointed when I found
out about their data policy. Having to pay a premium 50/pa to get access to my
own data (it's one of the big 'upsells' of premium) leaves a very bad taste in
the mouth.,And now learning that even this doesn't give you access to your raw
data is even worse.

I hope Fitbit changes their approach; if anything I think they have it
backwards: give me my data for free when I purchase your hardware for life,
and upsell me the web app (i'd be happy to pay for it; maybe include the first
year free with your hardware purchase); rather this than than give you a
pretty complete web app for life for free to record everything i want, but and
then charge me to read back my own data!

~~~
tommoor
Agreed, also a fitbit owner and this seems like a no-brainer - they should
open up this data and allow for more to be built on the platform ala
runkeeper.

------
qdot76367
I run <http://openyou.org>, a site dedicated to reversing as many medical
devices as we (or, well, at the moment, mostly I) can get our (my) hands on.

So far, we've put out Emokit (emotiv epoc headset), libfitbit, libomron, and
have started libfuelband and libsensewear. The main problem is just time and
lack of people resources. We need more people aware that USB/Bluetooth
reversing, while somewhat complex, is not all that inherently difficult. 2 or
3 people working together can easily open up a device and protocol format with
a minimal amount of [insert language that supports libusb or hidapi] code.
However, not many people are interested in learning that, as they just wanna
get the data and run. Understandable, but that means you're waiting on one or
two people to finish something that they may lose interest in.

I've been contemplating trying to teach a usb/bt reversing workshop for years
now, I should really get around to trying that soon.

~~~
vitovito
There's not a lot of help out there for people who are willing to put the time
and effort into protocol reversing but don't know where to start!

EA put out a fitness video game with a wireless heart rate monitor that showed
up as a normal HID device via its USB dongle. On sale it was like $40, making
it a very inexpensive way to log heart rate wirelessly. But no-one had
reversed the protocol, and I couldn't find any online resources to teach me
how to do it myself.

I'm pretty sure I threw it out, and the product is discontinued now, but I
would encourage you to at least put training materials together, if not a full
workshop.

~~~
qdot76367
Yeah, I will admit that information does end up being the main problem. I've
been doing this long enough that it's pretty much second nature these days,
and I just find myself going "but what is there to teach?".

I've taught workshops on other subjects before, and usually once I get going
to writing cirriculum that question answers itself in spades, though. Just
need the motivation.

I'm finishing up another personal project right now, then I may start on this.
I suppose I don't really have much room to complain when I've already set out
a solution that just needs to be done. :)

~~~
vitovito
I ran fifteen design workshops in 2010, so feel free to ping me off HN if you
have questions or need support. The HID protocol used by the USB version of
the Neurosky Mindwave EEG headset is also undocumented AFAIK, and I could test
drive your training using that.

You might also consider trying out Zed Shaw's "Learn X the Hard Way" format as
a framework, which he recently formally published:
[https://gitorious.org/learn-x-the-hard-way/learn-x-the-
hard-...](https://gitorious.org/learn-x-the-hard-way/learn-x-the-hard-
way/blobs/master/README)

~~~
qdot76367
Huh. I used to maintain bindings for the old bluetooth neurosky mindset for
PureData/MaxMSP, never thought about the issues with their new headset with
proprietary radio not having drivers. They were usually pretty good about open
sourcing stuff too.

Last workshop I taught was
[http://artandcode.com/3d/workshops/2b-teledildonics-with-
the...](http://artandcode.com/3d/workshops/2b-teledildonics-with-the-kinect-
and-arduino), which I had to compress into 3 hours so it was more an overview
sort of thing. I think this workshop will require a nice device to start
reversing from scratch, which is something else I'm going to have to figure
out. Fitbit would suck since you'd have to learn USB, then ANT. Would like to
get one HID device, one non-HID, just to cover most of the bases.

------
MichaelApproved
" _I guess it is true, if you aren’t paying for it, you are the product._ "

But according to the author, even the $50 option doesn't let you download the
data so it has nothing to do with you being the _product_.

~~~
vertis
More than that, you have to pay for the device in the first place, so on that
front you're absolutely the customer.

~~~
jrockway
Indeed. Everyone likes to think missing features are some scam that the
company that owns the project is perpetrating upon their users, but in reality
they probably want to lock you in for the sake of locking you in. They don't
know why, but making the data open would be extra work, would help their
competitors, and might hurt their chances of being bought. They can always be
more open later, but they can't ever un-open. So they're closed.

Don't buy their products. That's what I did.

~~~
angdis
I agree, there are other reasons for not providing the raw data. For the vast
majority of people raw-data just isn't something that is even remotely usable.
Even if one is an expert with data analysis, IMHO, it will require a lot of
work to process and interpret it correctly. It may even require a deep
knowledge about the device and all its quirks-- we're talking about data
derived from a cheap accelerometer here. In the end, it is hard to see how
opening up the raw data so a few hackers can take a crack at it is
advantageous to fitbit or even consumers in general.

------
jessedhillon
The Bodymedia FIT, in addition to being a superior device overall(1), has an
API which let's you access caloric burn and other data up to single minute
detail levels. If you Google around, there are some blog posts describing how
to dump data from it using standard USB serial port drivers.

API webpage: <https://developer.bodymedia.com/docs/read/Home>

1- The Bodymedia gives you steps taken as well as accurate sleep and caloric
burn readings.

~~~
heyitsnick
Could you explain a bit more when Bodymedia FIT is superior? The FitBit One
and Ultra tracks steps taken, floors climbed, and sleep efficiency, and tells
you calories burned and distance travelled (the latter two i assume just
simply calculated from the raw data collected; you can input your weight and
stride length on the site).

~~~
b3b0p
I believe the Fitbit is nothing more than a step counter type of device. I
could be wrong, but that's what it looks like.

The Bodymedia FIT has actual sensors, it's an armband you have to wear. It
monitors temperature among other things. It has been tested against, a $40,000
"portable oxygen analyzer", the gold standard for measuring calories. (source:
<http://www.bodymedia.com/the_science.html>)

Regarding the Bodymedia FIT developer program. It looks you still need a
subscription though and one still needs to upload the data from the armband to
the website to get at it. Seems kind of pointless. I would want to get the
data directly from the USB armband without a subscription.

------
dadro
I recently wrapped up a 6 month project that entailed extensive Fitbit
integration. My client is a fortune 500 company and even with their resources
it took them months to become a Fitbit partner. Fitbit also charged a
ridiculous amount of money for accessing the 100K devices we were provisioning
as compared to the competitors.

If accessing the collector data is important I would consider looking at some
of the fitbit competitors, as they have much more open APIs. Fitlinxx
(<http://www.fitlinxx.net/pebble-activity-monitor.htm>) and Fitbug both come
to mind.

------
randomchars
If you live in the EU you can send them a data access request, which means
they have to provide you with all your personally identifiable information
that they keep, in this case that means pretty much everything.

I hate it when companies think that they can get away with making you pay for
your data.

~~~
dawson
I have always been curious about this, from a healthcare perspective. For
example, we encrypt PID information one way (the patient has their own unique
data access key, which is then encrypted with their password + salt and some
'other stuff'), so we couldn't hand over any information if a data access
request was made, even if we wanted to as we don't have access to that
information ourselves!

~~~
hayksaakian
You could hand over the encrypted data, the usefulness of such data being low
however.

~~~
dawson
The issue is that the PID is all encrypted, I wouldn't know if we have a John
Doe on our system, we can't see anything to verify that user exists or that
they're the appropriate owner of said data. We do have an email (which is also
encrypted at a system level, which in theory we could access), but verifying
an access request based on an email address? I don't know. The way we solve
the problem is by making all the data available to the user once they have
authenticated, as long as you can login to our website, all your data is
available to you, but if you made a direct data access request to us, like a
FOI to our office by letter (the typical way it's done), not much I think we
could do.

~~~
thisone
Your IG team will know.

From my understanding, from the yearly IG briefings I used to have, you would
be able to provide that requester with information on how to obtain their
personal access, and point out to them where they can find the information
they have requested.

Information needs to be made accessible, you don't necessarily need to
actually provide printouts. For example, FOI requests from news agencies often
cover the same topics. This information can and often is posted publicly on
the organisation's website and the FOI responses refer the requester to those
links.

~~~
alexkus
FOI requests are often made because people don't trust that the "all your
information is displayed here on the website" is actually all of the
information that is being held on them.

What if the FOI request was supplemented with the users password (changed by
them to a temporary one)?

Other possibilities would be encrypting a second copy of the patients data
(each time it is stored by the user) using a public key with the corresponding
private key held in escrow somewhere on a machine with no network connection.
It would then be someone's job, upon receiving an FOI request, to take the
patients master-encrypted record(s), put them on the non-connected computer
that contains the private key, decrypt, and print out in order to reply to the
FOI and then clean up.

~~~
thisone
If this ability to decrypt data exists, you have yet another layer for the FOI
request.

You must track each and every time a patient's data was decrypted and by whom,
and that information must be available as well.

Information that you'll probably also need to encrypt, but still be able to
search by patient, date, and decrypter. (requests come through to find all
records a particular employee has seen within a certain date range as well)

I can see the start of a rabbit hole, which is why organisations dealing in
PID have IG teams or consultants who know the laws and know how much needs to
be done.

If a patient thinks an organisation is holding out on them, that patient has a
way to complain, and the complaints aren't taken lightly from what I've seen.

------
mcormier
Shameless plug.

I've started a project to track any data that I want and stop relying on all
of these free sites because of this loss of data issue.

The source code is here: <https://github.com/mcormier/tallyman>

and you can see it in action here: <http://stats.preenandprune.com>

I haven't tackled generated graphs from the SQL data yet but plan to
eventually. The one graph on the page was generated with Apple's Numbers.
Since it's annual data I don't plan on updating it more than once a year.

~~~
feniv
I've also been working on something very similar (general data tracking with
an awesome API) for a couple of months now. It's not quiet ready yet, but I
would love to have your input on it once it's online!

(P.S. My project is also heavily inspired by the features and shortcomings of
Daytum (namely the lack of an API), which is frankly the best self tracking
tool available at the moment.)

------
yarrel
There's libfitbit - <https://github.com/openyou/libfitbit>

~~~
rb2k_
The new fitbit can sync using the iphone's bluetooth 4 connection. This makes
syncing a passive rather than an active thing which was the reason I bought
the fitbit one even though I had the original one.

------
beaumartinez
I feel the same with regards to my Nike FuelBand. I even asked Nike if they
would provide an API[0] (they won't).

Fortunately their web app keeps your NikeFuel—Nike's activity metric—for every
day (in 15-minute increments) as a global JavaScript variable. I wrote a
scraper[1] to get me my data.

I wonder if you can do the same with Fitbit.

[0] <https://twitter.com/NikeFuel/status/205424488836370433> [1]
<https://github.com/beaumartinez/fuel>

~~~
marcusestes
They recently announced that Fuel data will be available by API after all:

<http://developer.nike.com/resources>

~~~
beaumartinez
Thank you, you have made my day!

------
asher_
This is a rather annoying trend with devices in this class. I own a half dozen
otherwise excellent devices like this, each of which require a SaaS
subscription to make full use of, any most of which deny me access to the raw
data. I have to think that the market for people wanting the raw data is
fairly small in comparison to the people who just want a simple, single-device
web service, but I think this is disappointing.

The real value in the data is the relationships between various data sources.
I really don't care how many steps I take in a particular day, but I do care
if there is a relationship between that and my weight, how well I sleep, my
heart rate etc. No device, or brand, does everything, nor should they. I want
to be able to get my data out so I can use it in interesting ways.

I have thought a lot about not buying any devices in the future that don't
allow me access to the data I produce. I think it is probably a good policy,
but I would be left with very little in the way of options then. Finding hacks
to get data out of devices can be useful, but should we really have to crack
each new gadget just to use the data? I think its a pretty sad state of
affairs.

------
nodata
Just wait until a large health insurance company buys Fitbit (or Withings, or
Garmin) - _they_ will have your data.

~~~
alexkus
I have various Garmins (Forerunner 405 for running and Edge 705 for cycling).
None of my data goes to Garmin as I just use Garmin Training Centre and don't
upload anything to Garmin Connect.

~~~
npsimons
Much as I dislike Garmin's lack of support for Linux, I have to second this.
My Forerunner 405, eTrex Vista and Vista HCx all download to my computer, with
the _option_ ( _not forced_ ) of uploading. I have full access to .GPX files
that I can use with any number of pieces of software (including Google Earth
and Maps). Also, I've been pretty happy with the Zephyr HxM hooked up to my
N900, and the wife has a Zephyr as well that works well with a Samsung Galaxy
III and Google tracks.

~~~
quantumstate
It case you haven't come across it I have found that garmintools and pytrainer
work very well with my forerunner 305. I have never used anything else.

------
hiroprot
Slightly OT, I used to obsess about the accuracy and actual data that these
devices provide (had a BodyMedia FIT and now a FitBit), until I realized that
the data itself isn't what I'm most interested in.

IMHO the main draw for these devices is their ability to motivate me to be
more active, sleep better, etc. Historical data is interesting, but not
crucial to that function (although I'd like to see FitBit make the data
available). Far more important are real-time feedback mechanisms, such as
notices that I achieved a goal, motivating messages ("you're almost there"),
etc.

------
unreal37
So this may be a counter argument to the "Hacker" culture, but here goes.
Hopefully this can spark an interesting discussion.

I own a fitbit, and have loved it. I don't regret paying the $99 for it. I log
into the web site, and see my daily totals, and the little graph showing when
my activity spikes were. At the end of a grueling day walking around New York
City, I can tell my wife that we took 20,000 steps and that's a bit
interesting. It's useful and interesting - only to a point.

So after reading this post, my main question is "Why?"

Why do you need minute-by-minute access to pedometer data? What use is it,
really? The OP says, basically, "out of curiosity". OK, so hack the thing.
There's a number of links for intercepting that data during the sync process.
But can you fault fitbit for not providing data that noone (not even the
company itself) needs?

What data can the fitbit give you on a minute-by-minute basis that is remotely
useful or interesting?

It's just a pedometer. At the end of the day, it tells you you took 10,000
steps or whatever. It's also interesting that you walked 50 miles this month,
or have walked up steps to the level of a helicopter flies. Or how many miles
you've walked this year.

But minute-by-minute?

~~~
ISL
Spectral analysis. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectral_density_estimation>

Without frequent sampling, you can't get access to high frequency information.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyquist_frequency>

An example (not for regular sampling, but I hope it gets the point across): if
a pedometer records the time of every footfall through the day, you can
discern whether your pace is faster on Tuesdays than Sundays, even if you take
the same number of steps. If those data are aggregated into steps/hour, you'll
never see it.

The lack of open access to the data acquired by a FitBit (I'd been considering
buying one) is a certain dealbreaker.

------
harold
This project hasn't been updated in a while but might be a good starting point
for a roll-your-own solution:

<https://github.com/loghound/Fitbit-for-Google-App-Script>

------
patrickk
Fitbit's data policy seems to be in stark constrast to that of Zeo. I bought a
Zeo Sleep Manager after reading Gwern's excellent, extremely detailed writeups
about his sleep experiments:

<http://www.gwern.net/Zeo>

These wouldn't be possible without data exports:

[http://mysleep.myzeo.com/export/Export%20Data%20Help%20Sheet...](http://mysleep.myzeo.com/export/Export%20Data%20Help%20Sheet.pdf)

------
darklajid
My pet peeve:

I wanted to know what fitbit is, but the site redirects me to fitbit.com/de
and I closed that site.

How can they be open about data, if they have obviously no clue about open
standards, like http accept headers? Worse, there's no way to visit the
(official?) fitbit.com site even after that idiotic redirect. I can't access
an english version, period. Stupid.

~~~
ig1
There's a logical flaw in your reasoning "doesn't http accept headers" doesn't
imply anything about their understanding of open standards.

While it's perfectly understandable that you might be upset that their site
for Germany doesn't offer english language as an option, that's clearly a
completely separate issue from how they handle user data.

~~~
darklajid
You're correct. I let my anger about ignoring my explicit preferences, which I
expressed in a standard way, lead me to believe that the company doesn't care.

Obviously that's annoyance speaking and speculating based on me being tired
with the constant 'Hey, I know better what you want' attitude (Looking at you,
Google/Blogger) - I don't even know a single thing about their product (which
is why I went to the site in the first place).

Sorry about that. I stand by my point about this sort of redirection being a
telltale sign of a flawed web site and lack of respect for user preferences.
What else they can or cannot do, I have no clue about and cannot judge.

~~~
ig1
Given that you're in Germany and they don't have an english version of their
Germany website available their two options would be either to send you to the
German language website for Germany (which they do) or alternatively send you
to the US or UK website which are in english.

I'm not sure it's obvious that sending someone in Germany to the UK/US website
(where presumably they'll be unable to buy the product) just because their
browser is set to English is the better solution.

While for sites like Blogger language is obviously more important than
country, for companies which are country-localized (i.e they treat different
countries differently for shipping, taxes, legal, operations, etc.) I would
guess that it makes more sense to send you to local country version.

Imagine you were using say a dating site or a takeaway site, you would find it
equally frustrating if you were routed away from a local language site to a US
specific site just because that's what your language preferences were set to.

~~~
darklajid
I'm not sure why you're conflating

a) content and localization

b) the region I'd like the product to ship to, if at all

Why is the site different for different countries, ignoring 'translation'? I
haven't thought it through, maybe, but I cannot come up with any decent reason
for a 'German' site that isn't just the 'US' site in a different language.

In that case, please (dear website) listen to what I'm asking for. If I go to
fitbit.com I expect to get the very same thing someone in the US receives. I'd
like to talk about the very same site. I don't want someone to redirect me to
a localized thing. And certainly not without giving me the opportunity to say
'Yeah, no. That was stupid. I really wanted the original version, silly'.

Same thing: If I go to www.google.com, I want to end up at www.google.com, not
www.google.de. If I visit a random post on Blogger, chances are everything
content is in English. Except for the 'helpful' Blogger toolbar and whatnot,
that are coming up in German, because hey that's where we figured out you're
coming from.

Lived in Israel for a year, got a Hebrew toolbar, google.il (and I'd like to
know what fitbits would've done there). German vs. English is one thing: I can
read both, I just explicitly (url, domain, accept headers) ask for the latter.
English vs. Hebrew is another: I cannot read the latter, even if I happen to
be - yay for geolocation - in the one state that represents the Hebrew
language.

    
    
      Imagine you were using say a dating site or a takeaway site, you would find it
      equally frustrating if you were routed away from a local language site to a 
      US specific site
    

Right. Don't send me anywhere if I navigate to example.com, even if I ask for
de_DE. Offer a translated version, if you can. Otherwise drop a small
(German?) link on your .com, saying 'We noticed you explicitly ask for German
content. We got a country specific site right here -> example.de'

A dating site would allow me to register and state my country of origin or
interest (which might be Germany, even if I live in Tel Aviv at that time). A
takeaway site is really a weird example. www.pizza.de is available in German
only for all I can tell and won't redirect me to a random US site because I
ask the server to please return en_US or en localized content, _if possible_.

So, for me this whole 'automagic-we-know-it-best' translation/redirection
thing is broken by design. It was a constant hassle in the past and just seems
to catch on. Which is why I'm pointing it out when I can. I'm sorry for the
thread-jacking. Thanks for the exchange so far.

------
gregcohn
Good post. Are are any of the similar devices more open, in terms of both data
accessibility and format?

~~~
jrockway
If a FitBit is just a pedometer, I have an Omron HJ-720IT that syncs with my
Linux box (uploading a week's worth of hourly step counts). It's $30 on
Amazon.

~~~
thisone
The cheaper one is a pedometer, the expensive one tries to do things like
track your sleeping patterns and hooks into their own make of scale.

------
npsimons
_I also asked around and Fitbit seemed like the most “open” platform for
collecting one’s own data._

Either the OP didn't ask around very well, or they were lied to. There are
plenty of other much more open solutions out there.

Edit: A downvote? Really? In what way is the above not true?

~~~
jessedhillon
Give us names, add links.

~~~
npsimons
Okay, names and links:

I speak here only from personal experience; having used the following mostly
at the gym, biking to and from work and while hiking in the Sierras:

\- Garmin Forerunner 405
([https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=11039&ra=true](https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=11039&ra=true)):
All around general good "exercise" watch, but battery life requires a backup
plan. Doesn't have Linux software, but can easily export to GPX for use in
things like Google Earth and Maps. You can also combine other sensors: bicycle
speed/cadence sensor (<https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=1266>) and a
foot pod (<https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=15516>) for gym workouts,
or just longer battery life.

\- Zephyr HXM (<http://www.zephyr-technology.com/products/fitness>) combined
with a smartphone (such as N900): Another good solution for basic logging; a
variety of software to choose from, with different levels of openness.

Just to curb some replies: I know that FitBit does other stuff, lasts longer
on a charge, has less friction getting data off, etc, but the thing I'm
countering is the openness claim. If you have to pay for your data, and you
still don't get a copy, it's a) not your data and b) not an open platform.
Some basic research would have revealed this, hence why I didn't (and won't)
get a FitBit, and I recommend others avoid it too.

------
vannevar
I was looking at FitBit but am really not interested in uploading any data. Is
it possible to use the FitBit desktop app without permitting it to upload?
Would it cache everything locally and function normally or does it require
access to be usable at all?

~~~
vannevar
Ah, found the answer in the product manual:

"The Tracker will upload your data every 15 minutes provided you are within
range of any plugged in base station (about 15 feet for direct line of sight),
the computer is on and not in sleep or hibernate mode, the software is
installed and running, and _you have an active internet connection_."

This implies to me that the data isn't cached locally outside of the Tracker
itself, if an internet connection is not available.

------
mavlee
I actually ran into the same problem recently, when trying to get my minute by
minute data. I even emailed their support team, but no luck.

I wonder if there's an easy way to scrape their flash charts on the
dashboard...

~~~
MichaelApproved
Without using the website, I suspect you can use something like Fiddler to see
what HTTP requests are being made. Chances are the charts are making an XML or
JSON request to their servers.

If you're lucky, the URL requests will be in an easy to reverse engineer
format so you could easily dump all the data you need by adjusting the URL.

~~~
bloaf
Why not try to intercept the data as it comes through the USB port instead?

~~~
Thrymr
Or try liftbit as noted above: <https://github.com/openyou/libfitbit>

~~~
simcop2387
libfitbit unfortunately doesn't currently work with the fitbit one, for the
older devices it's apparently fine but the one changes how it gets talked to
entirely. I've attempted a bit of work with getting something talking to it
but it's not an easy thing to do. Their bluetooth dongle presents itself as an
HID device and I think hides a lot of the details away from you if you wanted
to talk to it over actual bluetooth. I'd love to get it to sync with both
their site and to be able to capture the information myself to store.

------
lispm
I like the device. But without access to my data I will not buy it.

------
rb2k_
Related: I also wrote a little script that uses the API to save data as YAML
files: [http://blog.marc-seeger.de/2012/09/16/backing-up-fitbit-
data...](http://blog.marc-seeger.de/2012/09/16/backing-up-fitbit-data-using-
their-api/)

It isn't as detailed (e.g. distribution over time) as the website, but it
still gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling to have at least part of the data in
machine-readable files :)

------
bigfrakkinghero
I purchased a FitBit based on it's reputation without realizing that I would
have to pay to access the data that I'm collecting... deal breaker! As others
have said, I understand charging for an ongoing service like analyzing the
data and using their site, but not for just accessing the raw data from the
device.

For me, this is the first time that not owning my own data has really put me
off. I'll be returning my FitBit.

------
senthilnayagam
I like fitbit, it is inspiring me daily to go for my workout.

Minute by minute data can be very useful for custom visualization.

I have found a few bugs in fitbit, like I change my daily targets, but weekly
targets dont change.

Also, fitbit free app is not available in Indian App Store. I dont want to
create a US apple account to just use this app.

If open data access is available, I would be inclined to but a Aria and couple
of fitbit zip for my family members as well.

~~~
heyitsnick
> like I change my daily targets, but weekly targets dont change.

fwiw I think that is by design; the two things are independent. e.g. you may
wish to set a minimum 10k steps a day, but a weekly goal of 100k (or
whatever). It's a bit confusing because it sets you up defaults for both day
and week where week=7xDay, but it doesn't have to be that way.

------
RossM
I was planning on getting a FitBit this week, the main purchasing decision
against a Nike Fuelband being open access to data. Does anyone have any
alternatives they can recommend? I'm especially interested in the sleep
tracking side of things.

~~~
binarysolo
If you just want to track sleep, use Sleep Cycle (iPhone/Android phone app).

I personally love the FitBit ecosystem (I use the app and scale religiously,
and its UX is fantastic) and stopped using Sleep Cycle in favor of the
tracking via FitBit.

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biturd
Why do we need an actual hardware device to get to this data? Don't iPhones
and Androids and others have all the internals needed to get the same data,
and more, such as altitude, so you can check the incline you are against etc.

~~~
heyitsnick
I think for lots of people, they don't want carry their expensive smart-phones
with them when they exercise. I'm also always forgetting it, don't charge it,
etc. These new devices are so small you can basically wear it all day and
forget about it.

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ivankirigin
I was just looking into something similar for Jawbone Up. There is an
unofficial API <http://eric-blue.com/2011/11/28/jawbone-up-api-discovery/>

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cpenner461
Just got a Jawbone UP, and I can login to my account with them and download a
CSV with my data. It's just a daily summary though (i.e. not the full hour by
hour or whatever interval it's recording at).

------
pringles
[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/fitbit-
api/Intrad...](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/fitbit-
api/Intraday/fitbit-api/kV0XOcuARtU/PdL19QPxPtEJ)

------
wastedbrains
keep emailing and asking on the message boards. Fitbit is a bit slow to get
back to people but normally pretty good about it. I built ruby apis to access
fitbit before they had an API and a android app prior to them releasing their
own. I was in email contact with them the whole time and they were willing to
help me out and give me beta access to the api before it was public.

I love fitbit, and hope they allow users to at least download the detailed
personal reports.

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gregcohn
Useful roundup from TC: <http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/02/best-health-apps/>

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ejain
FWIW, I asked for (and got) access to Fitbit's "intraday" API without much
trouble (or extra cost).

------
Too
Because then you would be able to see how inaccurate the sensors really are?

------
durga
try FitFrnd: We'll soon add a button to allow you to download ALL your data in
csv/excel format.

[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fitfrnd-best-weight-loss-
soc...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fitfrnd-best-weight-loss-
social/id522850347?mt=8)

