Your Fitness App Might Be Spying On You And That Could Be A Good Thing

 

In a world of apps and devices that live on our bodies like Fitbits, it can be more than a little concerning how much data there is floating around about each one of us that we may not even know exists.

However, the constant tracking of common fitness tools can actually come in handy if you are ever in a bicycle accident.

Why? Well, by tracking your physical movements, your Fitbit, Strava, or MapMyRide app can help corroborate your story should you ever need to prove exactly where you were, how you were moving,or exactly how bad your injuries were.

Location, time, and speed

It’s not uncommon for a driver who is at fault for an accident to try to rewrite the story in a way that is more beneficial for them. They may change details about where you were, which way you were going, or when the accident occurred in order to make the case seem more beneficial to them.

In most cases, then, we have to find ways to prove that the cyclist we are representing is telling the true version of the story. This means relying on police reports and witness statements, which are useful but not always perfect, and the cyclist themselves may have suffered an injury that prevents them from accurately recalling the details of the accident.

A fitness tracker, though, generally comes with a GPS tracking tool that can help pinpoint exactly where you were and what you were doing at any given time before, during, and after the accident.

This tracker can provide irrefutable proof one way or the other exactly where you were during the accident — and often it can even say which direction you were going in and how fast — all of which can help you put to rest any false allegations coming from the other side.

Health status

It might be obvious that a fitness tracker can help pinpoint the time and location of an accident, which can help you confirm the truth in your case. But there are other benefits that these tools can provide that you might not think of until you are deep into a bicycle accident case.

Not only does a fitness tracker keep an eye on where you are when you’re on your bike, but it also gives you a place to store important health and fitness information before you are ever in an accident. And having all of your health data and injury reports carefully logged in these apps can keep the insurance companies from making false claims about pre-existing injuries or other questionable assumptions about your health status in an attempt to pay you less than you are owed.

If you are an older cyclist or an experienced cyclist, an insurance company might claim that you already had a certain injury before you were in an accident. They’ll do this as a way of denying you payment for part of your claim, and in many cases, it can be challenging to prove whether or not an injury is old or new.

Injuries that aren’t obvious like broken bones can be hard to prove were a result of the crash itself; while that might seem ridiculous to an outsider, this is unfortunately a tack that many insurance companies will attempt to take.

However, logging your health and injury information in an app gives you a record that you can use to prove new injuries in your case. If you are thoroughly documenting your health, injuries, and recoveries, it will be much harder for them to claim that an injury you have after the accident was actually there before.

Your app can even help you prove diminished quality of life in some cases; for example, if you’re a fitness junkie who was previously running or biking hundreds of miles a month, and your exercise drops down to zero after a debilitating accident, you can demonstrate with data exactly how much of your preferred activity you are missing out on.

Do you use a fitness tracker?

If you’re using a fitness tracker, you should absolutely be using it as thoroughly as possible in the event an accident occurs and you need backup. While we all hope our Fitbits will only ever need to be used for proving how much farther we can ride than anyone we know, it doesn’t hurt to be prepared to leverage that valuable data in the event you really need it.