Issue with Setting up Race

[Keep It Simple]

I want to use this watch for time, hiking, kayaking, and biking with GPS maps, and heart rate readings (maybe the latter given the unreliability comments). It is possible but very unlikely that I’ll be using most features of this watch but maybe a few after I see all of the possibilities. When setting up the watch I get to a point where I need to agree that all of my personal data will be shared with the world. Totally unacceptable! How can this watch be used without all of the invasive data gathering?

Can this agreement requirement be modified after this setup is completed or should I just return the watch?

Thanks
Ed

[A Former User]

@Keep-It-Simple Don’t believe you need to share all “personal data with the world”, but Suunto does indeed store everything in the cloud. There is no way to extract a gpx/fit file directly from the watch, without using their cloud.

Access to your data can be limited, but I do feel your concern… also because Suunto is a Chinese company.

At the same time, I’m sharing most of my activities on Strava anyway…

[Desdinova]

The advantage of storing the data in the cloud is making it easier to view on other devices. You have to balance that against any concerns, but you’ll be hard pressed to find any sports watch without an associated cloud storage. The “invasive data gathering” is how it it catalogs and rates your activities, by processing the data it collects. If you want to track activities without this, get a handheld GPS device and use that.

It isn’t shared with the world, it’s stored in the cloud. You can make every activity you do private, by default

[mikekoski490]

@Keep-It-Simple If you have this same fear with ANY ‘invasive data gathering’ tech - such as from Apple, Microsoft, Google, Netflix, Amazon, Garmin, Polar, Coros, Wahoo, the…internet etc - I would recommend perhaps a Seiko or Timex watch, preferably hand wound/mechanical and without any sort of microchip. You know - to be 100% sure.

…and maybe a magnetic 🧭.

And ditch your cellphone and laptop asap.

[Keep It Simple]

Despots love it when we voluntarily surrender our freedoms and privacy!

I guess I’ll test the availability of the privacy option. By the way I never send/store personal files/data in the cloud. I especially avoid any password managers.

Thanks for your assistance even if it was somewhat disheartening.

[Desdinova]

@Keep-It-Simple there’s nothing surrendered. Cloud storage is just the way this device works, as do many others.

Get an older handheld GPS device if you don’t want cloud