Wearables are increasingly privy to some pretty interesting data and Jawbone just illustrated that point with a chart that shows how residents in Northern California were affected by this weekend’s earthquake.
Specifically, Jawbone showed how residents in San Francisco, Sacramento and nearer to the epicenter around Napa woke from sleep when tremors hit around 3:25 a.m. The chart was posted in a post on Engadget.
According to the chart, about 90 percent of Jawbone users were asleep when the quake hit and the closer users were to Napa the more likely they were to wake up. Around half of the users in San Francisco woke up, but almost no one did 100 miles away from the epicenter in Modesto.
To be sure Jawbone’s report is an intersting case of how wearables can track the minutia of our comings and goings and compile them into useful insights. However, privacy hawks are beginning to ask how that data is being used and who it’s being shared with.
Jawbone competitor Fitbit this week responded to allegations by U.S. Sen. Schumer that the company was selling information gathered from its fitness wearable.
Fitbit detailed its privacy policy this week on its website after Schumer warned of a potential “privacy nightmare.”