Fitbit Data Collection Privacy Notice

This privacy notice explains how data from Fitbit is collected and used as part of the CONNECT study. It should be read with the Participant Information Sheet.

Participants who choose to provide Fitbit data will be asked to allow CONNECT to access data from their Fitbit account. Participants can change their choice at any time.

After you have given permission, the CONNECT server accesses your Fitbit data and makes a copy of it.  The CONNECT server is secure and is operated by The University of Manchester. The copy of the Fitbit data is stored in the CONNECT research database. The purpose of using your Fitbit data is for research only. The participant information sheet describes this. All data is handled according to the University of Manchester Privacy Notice for Research Participants.

Your Fitbit data is labelled with your study ID number (pseudo-anonymised), encrypted, and transferred securely to the CONNECT research database. The research database is hosted by Amazon Web Services in London and is managed by a University of Manchester-approved service provider. In line with research data storage best practice, your Fitbit data will be stored for up to 20 years.

Only those members of the research team who have permission are allowed to access your Fitbit data.  Secure authentication and access controls are used to make sure of this.  Your data is not shared with anyone else except if this is needed where necessary for the operation and maintenance of the secure research infrastructure that supports the CONNECT study.

When using your Fitbit data, we will follow the Fitbit, Google, and University of Manchester requirements about research data processing and security.

Collection of Fitbit data is optional. If you choose to allow access, CONNECT will collect the following data from your Fitbit account:

• physical activity and exercise;
• daily activity summaries;
• step counts, including intraday (daily) step data;
• calorie expenditure, including intraday (daily) calorie data;
• heart rate, resting heart rate, and heart rate variability;
• Irregular heart rhythm
• breathing rate;
• sleep, including sleep stages and sleep classifications;
• skin temperature;
• ECG Data; and
• time zone information linked to recorded Fitbit data.

If you withdraw from the study, you can ask us to delete your Fitbit data from the CONNECT research database.  We will do this if it has not yet been anonymized and included in research analysis.  This is because after it has been anonymized, we will not be able to work out which data is yours so cannot delete it.