Amazon's New Fitness Tracker Sounds Like a Body-Shaming, Tone-Policing Disaster
Victoria Song
Today 2:20PM
There are bad ideas, and then there is Amazon’s attempt to get into the health tracker market with a new health subscription service and accompanying tracker, Amazon Halo and Amazon Halo Band.
The pitch here is that Halo Band is a more holistic health tracker. In its press release announcing the device and service, Amazon says that the Halo Band is “purpose-built to focus on your health and wellness—unlike smartwatches and fitness trackers, it doesn’t have a screen or constant notifications.” In that sense, it’s like the Whoop tracker—and frankly, it looks a whole lot like it too. The sensor array itself contains an accelerometer, temperature sensor, heart rate monitor, two microphones, LED indicator light, and a button you can use to turn microphones on or off. Amazon claims the Halo Band will last about a week on a charge. There’s also a companion app that measures things like activity and sleep, and like Fitbit, offers “Labs” for experimental apps with partners. Oh, and also the ability to scan your body fat percentage using your phone, as well as analyze the tone you’re speaking in.
When this news broke, I had to blink at my screen a few times because I could not believe this launch was real after the Amazon Echo Look went to the big tech graveyard in the sky earlier this year. But no, this is a $65 device and $4 monthly subscription platform that encourages you to scan a 3D image of yourself in your undies with your phone so it can create a render of your body. Some “new innovations in computer vision and machine learning” then allow Amazon Halo to calculate your body fat percentage. Per the Verge, once the calculating is done, “the app will give you a little slider you can drag your finger on to have it show what you would look like with more or less body fat.”
There are obvious concerns right off the bat with body dysmorphia and eating disorders. In an article describing the body scan feature, Amazon states it doesn’t recommend people to scan their bodies more than once every two weeks, as it takes a long time to reduce body fat. In an email, a spokesperson also told Gizmodo that there is “education throughout the feature in the app that helps customers understand the context of their body fat percentage range, what body fat percentage means and more.” They also said that the slider tool would not “go below the healthy body fat percentage for the customer’s sex and age.” Amazon also told the Verge that the feature would only be accessible for people 18 or older.
It’s nice that Amazon has put safeguards in place, but body dysmorphia and eating disorders are not rational. Being 18 years old or older does not mean you’re less likely to develop body image issues or bulimia. Being educated about your health on multiple levels, knowing what is the healthy thing to do—that doesn’t stop a person from engaging in unhealthy eating behaviors. A recommendation to only measure yourself once every two weeks doesn’t deter someone from obsessively tracking their data and re-scanning their body, or hyper-obsessively fixating on what a “thinner” version of themselves would look like. Body dysmorphic disorder affects somewhere between 5 to 10 million people in the U.S., and this NIH study says it’s not only relatively common but likely underreported. The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders also states that at least 30 million people of all ages and genders currently suffers from an eating disorder in the U.S. Even with safeguards, you’re putting a potentially dangerous and affordable tool in the hands of millions of vulnerable people…….
https://gizmodo.com/amazons-new-fitness-tracker-sounds-like-a-body-shaming-1844866654