How smart rings are monitoring more than we realize.
According to experts, the best way to maintain a new habit is to track it. I’ve recently taken up running. And as runners typically do, I’m now hooked on tracking my distance, measuring my pace, and setting goals to get better. Naturally, this sent me down the rabbit hole of finding the best tracking device.
There are many options. From Fitbit to Apple Watch to Garmin, there’s a wide variety of gadgets to monitor our habits. Especially since it’s a growing market. According to Yahoo Finance, the global fitness tracker market was valued at $52.29 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $189.98 billion by 2032, growing 17.5% every year from 2026 to 2032. Looks like more and more people are interested in quantifying our health.
Beyond smartwatches, there are also rings. Oura, a Finnish company, pioneered data tracking 10 years ago through a smart ring. The design is unobtrusive, and yet it has the capacity to measure all kinds of information, of course, at a price. To access its full power, you need to pay $349 for the ring plus a $6 monthly subscription.
The Wall Street Journal reported last year that Oura is “the leading smart-ring brand, with over 60% of the market,” representing 5 million rings sold worldwide.
Oura and its competitors Ringcon and Ultrahuman have become popular for rings with nice aesthetics as well as a good capacity to track steps, heart rate, sleep cycles, and even menstrual health. But competition will be no more: earlier this year, the International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled against Ultrahuman and Ringcon for patent infringement, effectively banning them from import and sales in the US market starting October 21.
These rings may be less benign than they seem. On August 27, Oura sent out a press release announcing a partnership with the Department of Defense (now unofficially renamed Department of War) and Palantir’s FedStart platform to support “population-level analysis of risk and readiness.” Whatever that means. This triggered all kinds of online backlash over privacy concerns.
Oura CEO Tom Hale said that the company does not and “would never sell customer data.” That has not stopped users from literally trashing their $349 smart rings. Privacy concerns, even if exaggerated by social media, should not be dismissed.
On the one hand, private companies profit from collecting data, but only if consumers willingly participate. If users feel betrayed, we cancel our subscriptions, delete the apps, and move on. That’s the market feedback loop. But it looks like the concern isn’t really about the companies but the possibility of the government accessing this private health data.
We’ve seen what this looks like in countries where the state is more overarching. In China, health surveillance is routine, and health data has become a tool for social control, especially after Covid. There’s a growing concern over the data leviathan wherein the alliance of tech companies and the state enables “social governance” in what some are naming a new era of “digital authoritarianism.”
Science fiction, the art of “what ifs,” has long warned us of this. Some might remember Gattaca, where genetic information dictates social status. What appeared as a futuristic dystopia is getting closer to home. Cutting through the noise of social media, it seems like there’s a legitimate fear.
To be fair, most of us are already handing over vast amounts of personal information. Amazon knows our purchase patterns, Instagram holds our photos, and Google tracks nearly everything in between. It’s quite possible the government is aware of all of this. It’s not as if avoiding a smart ring or a fitness tracker puts us “off the grid.” The difference is one of intimacy: we’re measuring our sleep cycles, stress levels, physical recoveries—it’s the literal state of our bodies.
While concerns might be overblown on social media, it does warrant the question: Should we be more careful and intentional about who we are sharing our sensitive data with?
Granted, no one is forcing us to purchase these devices, but what’s concerning is how little thought is put into the amount of information we are willingly giving to tech companies, especially if it comes in a cute ring that goes with everyday lifestyle, but even more, whether or not there’s a government overreach and how they might use the info.
In the meantime, I’ll keep running and tracking “manually,” and because I bring my phone with me, I’ll be sharing my health info with Apple (and Strava for my two friends who cheer me on, even though, as FEE’s Editorial Director pointed out a few months ago, it’s leaking information). Until then, please read the terms and conditions. We might be feeding the machines & co. more information than we should. It’s not about what we’re tracking; in reality, it’s about who is tracking us.
