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Malware and Fitbit

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ClaudiusTheIdiot
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Malware and Fitbit

#360808

Postby ClaudiusTheIdiot » November 28th, 2020, 10:39 am

A family member just phoned us to say that Mrs CtI's email address appeared spontaneously on his Fitbit, which he bought recently second-hand.

From what I was able to glean he wasn't typing anything at the time, and there were no other email addresses showing (he must have others in his contact list). He recently did a virus scan on his pc, and says he will do another (I don't know which antivirus he uses).

We live some distance away , all in England. We haven't visited this year. The email address is the one he would usually send to, but we normally phone so it hasn't been used for quite a lot of months (and we haven't sent to him recently).

A quick internet search shows some discussion of malware and Fitbit. I asked whether he can do a factory reset on the Fitbit but he seemed to think not. So I suggested he remove the Fitbit software from his pc, get rid of the device, then do another scan. Am I being alarmist?

UncleEbenezer
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Re: Malware and Fitbit

#360826

Postby UncleEbenezer » November 28th, 2020, 11:03 am

I've no idea what a fitbit is supposed to do.

But it's pretty standard for devices capable of communicating on behalf of humans to import address books from other devices that permit access. I'd imagine it must've imported it during setup. Possibly from his 'puter or 'phone, but most likely from the cloud, if he's signed up with a provider like google, apple, facebook, or microsoft.

Infrasonic
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Re: Malware and Fitbit

#360829

Postby Infrasonic » November 28th, 2020, 11:05 am

From a quick Google it appears that Fitbits will sync contacts, so depending on which fitbit model have a search around disabling that.
If contacts sync can't be turned off and on independently from general sync options then as you suggested a factory reset/deletion and uninstalling any sync software from phones/PC's might be the only route.

AF62
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Re: Malware and Fitbit

#361075

Postby AF62 » November 29th, 2020, 8:18 am

ClaudiusTheIdiot wrote:Am I being alarmist?


Yes, as it just sounds like they haven’t read the instructions (which is demonstrated by them not knowing how to do a factory reset - something you should of course do with any secondhand item). And yes you can factory reset a Fitbit > settings -> about.

It is a feature within a Fitbit to import contacts to share results, although most people would have it linked to their phone and not their pc, so I suggest the ‘malware’ has been the failure by them to read the instructions and resort instead to random button pushing.

ClaudiusTheIdiot
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Re: Malware and Fitbit

#361557

Postby ClaudiusTheIdiot » November 30th, 2020, 7:17 pm

Much reassured. Many thanks to all for replies. I will pass on the information.


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