Apple Watch leaks less data about you than most other fitness trackers

Canadian researchers have studies fitness-tracking-wearables and their apps from eight manufacturers to conclude that they could be tracked by store for profiling.

The tracking of wearables is also possible even without it being paired with to phone. (Pixabay)

Canadian researchers have studies fitness-tracking-wearables and their apps from eight manufacturers to conclude that they could be tracked.

The Computer World report says that devices except for the Apple Watch transmitted a persistent identifiable Bluetooth signal. This signal is tracked by beacons that stores use to profile the prospect customers. Devices by Jawbone, Fitbit, Mio and Xiaomi.

The tracking of devices is also possible even without it being paired with a phone. Only the Apple Watch was able to dodge tracking by complying to the the Bluetooth LE standards that requires the MAC address to change constantly.

If that's not bad enough, the companion apps that you need to use the tracker is leaking log in credentials, activity data making the user vulnerable to tracking, interception and tampering.

Using man-in-the-middle attack (intercepting communication between the wearable and app), researchers were able to get access to the data being sent and received from the servers and even encrypted data sent via HTTPS.

The report also highlighted that Intel has been voicing its worry about the security risks of poorly secured wearable devices since 2014.

Apple and Intel have managed to protect the watch from being duped by false certificates making it a more secure wearable compared to others.