FBI Provides Fitness App in Exchange for Users’ GPS Coordinates
During the coronavirus lockdown, the FBI is urging people to stay in shape by downloading its Fitness App. On March 23, 2020, the agency tweeted “download the FBI’s Physical Fitness Test app to learn proper form for exercises you can do at home like pushups and sit ups.” According to the FBI, the FitTest was created in 2018 and uses the “phone’s GPS and accelerometer” to provide users a “more realistic PFT experience.”
But the digital workout tool has been slammed on social media as a sneaky means for the government to obtain personal information amid the coronavirus pandemic.
One distrustful Twitter user quipped, “Looking to get ripped while ceding your location data to the FBI? Boy, do we have the app four [sic] you.”
Another user tweeted, “I’ll pass on this one.”
And Fight for the Future posted, “DO NOT - AND WE CANNOT STRESS THIS NEXT PART ENOUGH - DOWNLOAD THIS APP.”
Nonessential businesses, including gyms, were forced to close after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered New York City be placed on lockdown. In response, many folks have turned to the internet as a resource for fitness tips and other apps promoting wellness while staying at home.
The FBI’s Physical Fitness Test app promises users they may “train like an agent” using a variety of exercises that don’t require equipment. The FBI maintains that it “does not collect personal user data from this app; the information remains stored on the device in accordance with FBI.gov’s privacy policy.” And the government can be trusted to keep its word — just ask the indigenous tribes of America.
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