back to article Exercise-tracking app not QUITE fit for purpose

Popular fitness app MyFitnessPal, used by 65 million people, has fixed a vulnerability that exposed personal information including date of birth records. The profiles allowed users to fill out their private location data including country, state, and city but not street-level addresses for the purposes of linking neighbours. …

  1. A Non e-mouse Silver badge

    It's a sad state of affairs when a company quickly fixing a security hole (and thanking the person who discovered it) makes the headlines.

  2. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

    I thought date of birth was like a password

    You do not give the same date of birth to different websites / companies / banks. You keep dates of birth in your encrypted password file along with email addresses and password recovery questions you got from strings /dev/urandom | less

    1. Anonymous Coward
      WTF?

      Re: I thought date of birth was like a password

      You don't give the same date of birth to banks? That will make an interesting credit report.

      1. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

        It has caused trouble once ...

        ... trying to buy a large TV. Someone claiming to be the supplier called me and asked security questions which I refused to answer on the grounds that I had no idea who she was. The concept that she had to prove her identity to me was beyond her. The supplier had no provision for a customer phoning in to answer security questions. The next supplier was just as bad. The third supplier would not accept my credit card because of 'failed transactions'. I ended up going to the shop and paying cash. I think that is far less hassle than someone getting a loan for me and withdrawing £40,000.

    2. JDX Gold badge

      Re: I thought date of birth was like a password

      And definitely don't tell them your real height and weight, you don't want them knowing too much about you!

  3. Yugguy
    FAIL

    How about?

    Forgetting all about apps and poncy clothing and all that utter, pointless dross and just pull on a pair of running shoes and run for a while. Then run back again.

    Make the while longer until you run of time.

    THE END.

    It doesn't need to be any more complicated than that.

  4. Vector

    Headline should have been...

    ..."Fitness Tracker not Fit to Track"

  5. phil dude
    Coat

    fake data is a lifestyle choice...

    Really, the exercise app is a brilliant idea, but only needs an approximation of your data.

    Then again, I have been seeding the whole commercial system of the world with highly likely mis-spelling of my names.

    Funnily enough, the local DMV does it without asking...

    P.

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