iFit Data Breach Exposes The Sensitive Information of More Than Half A Million Users

Plenty of stationary, mobile, and wearable devices -- including their apps -- collect and store consumers' sensitive personal data, including health information. The Data Breaches blog reported a breach involving the popular mobile fitness app, iFit, affecting as many as 576,274 users. A researcher discovered the breach on December 10.

The iFit app includes customize-able workouts designed by fitness trainers. It is incorporated into wristbands, smart watches, and stationary exercise equipment such as NordicTrack. The stationary equipment includes treadmills, elliptical machines, stength-training machines, and exercise bikes used in homes and gyms. iFit also operates a wellness program with corporate partners for their employees.

The iFit Privacy policy provides a clear indication of the massive amount of data collected, archived, and reportedly exposed or stolen during this breach:

"... two types of information from users of our Site: "Personally Identifiable Information" which is information that can be used to locate you,contact you, or determine your specific identity (such as name, e-mail address, mailing address, phone number, user name, credit card information, etc.) and "Aggregate Information" which is information about your activities on the Site or in connection with the services that cannot be used to identify, locate, or contact you (such as frequency of visits to the Site, data entered when using the Site, gender, age, weight, height, food intake, activity level, interests, workout history and results, exercise equipment, Site pages most frequently accessed, browser type, links a User clicks, IP address, and other similar information)... When you register for an account (free or paid), we collect your name, a user name, a password, date of birth, current weight, target weight, height, gender, measurement system, activity level, fitness goal, intensity level, and the retail location where you purchased your iFit® equipment. When you use a credit card to pay for any of our services or products, we ask for your name, address, credit card and credit card-related information."

Besides archiving customers exercise types, date, time, geo-location, and exercise duration the app foten calculates calories burned. All of this data would be immensely valuable to insurance firms, health care organizations, and others. The data elements exposed or stolen open the breach victims to financial fraud, medical fraud, stalking, and spam.

For consumers the either want to keep their exercise activity private or expect fitness app developers to secure and protect sensitive information like health care organizations, the data breach presents a very troubling event. It is unclear if breach victims are limited to only the United States.

ICON Health and Fitness makes a lot of the exercise bikes, ellipticals, and strength-training equipment that use the iFit app.

At press time, a check of the iFit site and blog did not find any announcements of the breach. What are your opinions of the breach? Of the data collected? Of the company's post-breach response so far?