Mission Control Worrying amount of data collected by Specialized

[MrSimmo]

For those concerned about personal data sharing and storage, this is worrying. There is no way to opt out, so worth being informed prior to using.

Specialized collect and store various pieces of data which arent needed to improve their services or maintain the health of the bike:

Made for riders, by riders. | Specialized.com

From seasoned pros and weekend warriors to kids and commuters, if you ride, we’re here for you. We believe that bikes have the power to change lives, and this simple truth drives us to be and do better.

www.specialized.com

 

[Gary]

Suit up guys...

 

[Gary]

Be careful tho...

 

[steve_sordy]

You ought to read the T&Cs on What's App. When I first looked at them, they retained the right to use for their own purposes anything they can find on your phone, or through the use of your phone. It took them a lot longer to say it than that though. Almost as though they don't actually want you to read the T&C's.

In fact if you read pretty much any company's T&C's you will find that they want to monetise your use of their product. How else can they provide the product for free? That does not excuse Specialized of course who are already making money out of selling you a bike.

 

[wepn]

For those concerned about personal data sharing and storage, this is worrying. There is no way to opt out, so worth being informed prior to using.

Specialized collect and store various pieces of data which arent needed to improve their services or maintain the health of the bike:

Made for riders, by riders. | Specialized.com

From seasoned pros and weekend warriors to kids and commuters, if you ride, we’re here for you. We believe that bikes have the power to change lives, and this simple truth drives us to be and do better.

www.specialized.com

If you're uncomfortable with the data collection and very uncomfortable with Gary's glitter fix, pretty simple, don't use Mission Control.

 

[electricbogaloo]

Nice to know. I like how open the Shimano system is. But I fear most big companies will push into that direction.

 

[Darren]

I would suggest it's already too late in 2020 to be concerned about personal data, unless you've been extremely cautious over tlhe last 10 years and kept your details away from Apple, Google, Samsung etc. they already have it. Governments all have access to your phone data (Edward Snowden exposed this) and datasets are traded illegally over the dark web regardless of knowledge or consent.
If you have an electronic footprint (i.e. use a computer, a phone, have an isp with no vpn or use Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp etc.) then it's too late.
Wiggle were hacked last week, China are buying up every tech company that goes bankrupt during the crisis and nobody seems to be even trying to resist. Individuals are powerless, local legislation is out of date and is useless on the international stage and governments have covid, failing economies, social unrest and their own cyber security to manage so are as impotent as individuals to stop this massive theft.
It's annoying if companies like Specialized are taking more than they should as, whilst their intentions won't be nefarious, their own security will be inadequate in the face of an attack and they will be "sorry" they have lost your data and that's only if they are aware it's gone.
Check your credit card account regularly for transactions that aren't yours - sadly that's about all you can do these days unless you don't want to participate in modern life.

 

[wepn]

If you have an electronic footprint (i.e. use a computer, a phone, have an isp with no vpn or use Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp etc.) then it's too late.

I agree except it isn't too late. Your data is evolving, a constant flow. Minimise the flow, use a strong vpn, don't use Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp etc, don't sign up to Wiggle or whatever, if you must, sign in as a guest.Learn & educate about cybersecurity. It's never too late.

 

[electricbogaloo]

I think reviews should also be about that. In general they are too positive. In some reviews I never read about the clucking noise of the shimano and bosch motors. If Specialiced tracks your ride data it should be mentioned to encourage manufactures to do better.

 

[RickBullotta]

Nice to know. I like how open the Shimano system is. But I fear most big companies will push into that direction.

Hardly. Other than integration with some fitness devices, the Shimano system is very closed. The 3rd party apps to enable customizing your drive system required reverse engineering - not leveraging any open APIs that Shimano provides.

 

[boBE]

Most privacy policies remind me of the contract with Swan (Phantom of the Paradise): "all articles that are excluded are deemed included".

 

[electricbogaloo]

Hardly. Other than integration with some fitness devices, the Shimano system is very closed. The 3rd party apps to enable customizing your drive system required reverse engineering - not leveraging any open APIs that Shimano provides.

Yeah that's not really intentional but I was thinking more about the official customization and update policy. I really don't like the car like angle of Bosch where you have to make an appointment at your dealer just to make an update. I think you even have to pay for it.

 

[Banktramp]

Don’t worry, they wont tell the misses that you really ride your bike over to your girlfriends house!!!

Strava might tho!! ❤?

 

[Fivetones]

I would suggest it's already too late in 2020 to be concerned about personal data, unless you've been extremely cautious over tlhe last 10 years and kept your details away from Apple, Google, Samsung etc. they already have it. Governments all have access to your phone data (Edward Snowden exposed this) and datasets are traded illegally over the dark web regardless of knowledge or consent.
If you have an electronic footprint (i.e. use a computer, a phone, have an isp with no vpn or use Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp etc.) then it's too late.
Wiggle were hacked last week, China are buying up every tech company that goes bankrupt during the crisis and nobody seems to be even trying to resist. Individuals are powerless, local legislation is out of date and is useless on the international stage and governments have covid, failing economies, social unrest and their own cyber security to manage so are as impotent as individuals to stop this massive theft.
It's annoying if companies like Specialized are taking more than they should as, whilst their intentions won't be nefarious, their own security will be inadequate in the face of an attack and they will be "sorry" they have lost your data and that's only if they are aware it's gone.
Check your credit card account regularly for transactions that aren't yours - sadly that's about all you can do these days unless you don't want to participate in modern life.

Giving up and having no personal standards around this is not the answer. Tech at this scale works by lots of little effects mounting up. There’s already much greater awareness that FB, Google et al.are not your friends and people are turning away from them. An example, when did you last log in to your MySpace account? ?

Apple are probably the best of the big guys. They don’t monetise your data. None are perfect though.

For anyone who’d like to know more about big tech business models (no, Google are not a search company!), The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff is worth a read.

As for Specialized monetising your data. Given the low volumes of data I’d doubt it on an individual level. I wouldn’t worry to hard here I’m relatively fussy about this stuff (no Facebook, Amazon or Google accounts).

 

[Zimmerframe]

Suit up guys...

You foiled that one ..

 

[galaga187]

Giving up and having no personal standards around this is not the answer. Tech at this scale works by lots of little effects mounting up. There’s already much greater awareness that FB, Google et al.are not your friends and people are turning away from them. An example, when did you last log in to your MySpace account? ?

Apple are probably the best of the big guys. They don’t monetise your data. None are perfect though.

For anyone who’d like to know more about big tech business models (no, Google are not a search company!), The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff is worth a read.

As for Specialized monetising your data. Given the low volumes of data I’d doubt it on an individual level. I wouldn’t worry to hard here I’m relatively fussy about this stuff (no Facebook, Amazon or Google accounts).

On the Specialized Live EMTB event they were a bit vague on data privacy questions - saying there is only a small amount of data does not feel right. I will look into the book mentioned thanks.

 

[Gavalar]

For those concerned about personal data sharing and storage, this is worrying. There is no way to opt out, so worth being informed prior to using.

Specialized collect and store various pieces of data which arent needed to improve their services or maintain the health of the bike:

Made for riders, by riders. | Specialized.com

From seasoned pros and weekend warriors to kids and commuters, if you ride, we’re here for you. We believe that bikes have the power to change lives, and this simple truth drives us to be and do better.

www.specialized.com

Unless you're running drugs then I don't understand your worry, for instance, if you have an ALEXA, contrary to popular belief or what Amazon tells you, it records everything, you can actually ask Amazon, "request my data" and they will furnish you with a comprehensive email of every word you have spoken within earshot of Alexa, every time you use Whatsapp, Facebook, Google etc, etc, etc you leave a footprint, it's the same with Strava etc, you're living on the wrong planet if you want data privacy.

 

[MrSimmo]

Unless you're running drugs then I don't understand your worry, for instance, if you have an ALEXA, contrary to popular belief or what Amazon tells you, it records everything, you can actually ask Amazon, "request my data" and they will furnish you with a comprehensive email of every word you have spoken within earshot of Alexa, every time you use Whatsapp, Facebook, Google etc, etc, etc you leave a footprint, it's the same with Strava etc, you're living on the wrong planet if you want data privacy.

Unless you're running drugs then I don't understand your worry, for instance, if you have an ALEXA, contrary to popular belief or what Amazon tells you, it records everything, you can actually ask Amazon, "request my data" and they will furnish you with a comprehensive email of every word you have spoken within earshot of Alexa, every time you use Whatsapp, Facebook, Google etc, etc, etc you leave a footprint, it's the same with Strava etc, you're living on the wrong planet if you want data privacy.

Emtbs would be an excellent way to run drugs, easy to escape the law ?

 

[RickBullotta]

Yeah that's not really intentional but I was thinking more about the official customization and update policy. I really don't like the car like angle of Bosch where you have to make an appointment at your dealer just to make an update. I think you even have to pay for it.

That's actually one of my complaints about the Shimano system as well - you need to visit a dealer to have the wheel circumference set, for example. That's not very convenient if you have 27.5 and 29er wheels/tires that you swap out or if you change tires seasonally.

 

[thewrx]

Unless you're running drugs then I don't understand your worry, for instance, if you have an ALEXA, contrary to popular belief or what Amazon tells you, it records everything, you can actually ask Amazon, "request my data" and they will furnish you with a comprehensive email of every word you have spoken within earshot of Alexa, every time you use Whatsapp, Facebook, Google etc, etc, etc you leave a footprint, it's the same with Strava etc, you're living on the wrong planet if you want data privacy.

Wow you must be new here in this world, and live in a bubble of flowers and rainbows.

gtfo, with that im not doing anything illegal why should i worry bs!

 

[electricbogaloo]

That's actually one of my complaints about the Shimano system as well - you need to visit a dealer to have the wheel circumference set, for example. That's not very convenient if you have 27.5 and 29er wheels/tires that you swap out or if you change tires seasonally.

I think that's because of the speed restrictions. But other manufacturers like Vanmoof let you change the speed for yourself only pointing out that it's illegal. But at least you can do it with Stunlocker.

 

[Jackware]

Most privacy policies remind me of the contract with Swan (Phantom of the Paradise): "all articles that are excluded are deemed included".

No one has read the Terms and Conditions - (Eddie from about 4.00 onwards) ?

 

[JonasH]

This means that Specialized can refuse warranty claims on your bike/components based on data collected thru Mission Control?? What if they refused frame warranty if the place a crash sensor in the TCU and you just made a hard landing, or other things like wheel circumference below a threshold should void motor replacement? I don't like were this is heading....

 

[JonasH]

You ought to read the T&Cs on What's App. When I first looked at them, they retained the right to use for their own purposes anything they can find on your phone, or through the use of your phone. It took them a lot longer to say it than that though. Almost as though they don't actually want you to read the T&C's.

In fact if you read pretty much any company's T&C's you will find that they want to monetise your use of their product. How else can they provide the product for free? That does not excuse Specialized of course who are already making money out of selling you a bike.

They will also use it to refuse warranty claims I’m afraid. If that happens it will be the end of mission control for me and probably many others. Great app but people need to understand that it’s quite useless if they start to use it against you....

 

[Woody1975]

Can you run a Levo whit out Mission controle?

 

[aarfeldt]

Can you run a Levo whit out Mission controle?

Yep.

 

[KeithR]

They will also use it to refuse warranty claims I’m afraid.

What's wrong with that, though? Doesn't Specialized have a right to protect itself from fraudulent claims?

If that happens it will be the end of mission control for me and probably many others. Great app but people need to understand that it’s quite useless if they start to use it against you...

This is the same Specialized which is routinely credited with providing far and away the best after-sales/warranty/customer service of any bike manufacturer, right?

Clearly they do not "abuse" the information they collect, and there's literally no reason (the suspicions of tin-foil hat wearers notwithstanding) to assume they're suddenly going to start.

More to the point, they surely benefit from this reputation, and I'm willing to wager that they get far more from it than they would from beginning to screw customers over on legitimate warranty claims.

Here's the thing. "Reasonableness" is the key test in deciding whether a data controller uses the personal information it collects, lawfully - it really is The Magic Word.

(UK and EU Data Protection law was my specialism and career for the last twenty years, and I was bloody good at it.)

This is the information Specialized collects automatically via Mission Control:

• frequency of rides on your bicycle;
• starting location and ending location of your rides;
• power consumption during your rides;
• error occurrences with respect to the battery of the bicycle;
• motor and bicycle serial numbers and the hardware version you are using;
• rider behaviour (using analytics), rider preferences, ride history, rider performance statistics (e.g., length of rides, distance covered;
• elevation gain & loss, rider power, cadence, speed, average speed and elevation gain uphill);
• data from chat features; and
• billing history, log data and error reporting.

Try as I might, I can't see anything remotely unreasonable about Specialized having this information, for these clearly stated purposes:

• To prevent fraud and protect the security of our Services;
• To enforce our Terms of Use;
• To communicate updates and improvements;
• To carry out market research;
• To develop and optimize our products and services;
• To let you know when your bike needs servicing;
• To understand how a specific e-bike is performing, e.g., if errors are logged, Specialized will identify the specific e-bike and send fixes and software updates to that particular e-bike to resolve the error;
• To help us provide and operate the Service; and
• To comply with our legal obligations.

Another key thing to consider is the extent to which the information being processed could be used to cause damage and/or distress to an individual if it was misused - there's a balance between reasonableness and unacceptable risk. This is why some categories of personal data are defined as "sensitive" - there's more inherent risk to the individual if certain kinds of information about them are misused.

None of the data here are "sensitive", so again, I can't envisage any realistic way that Specialized knowing I rode 30 miles from this place to that and back again yesterday, might be used to harm me.

I just do not see the problem. A company holding a certain - proportionate (another Magic Word) - amount of personal information about you for certain specified purposes, is not intrinsically A Bad Thing.

I'd be more surprised if Specialized didn't collect this stuff, to be honest - I'm damn' sure I'd be collecting it if I was Specialized. And I'd be very confident that I would be able to make the case for doing so, if challenged.

 

[paquo]

why does it give you the option to be active in the backround when not using the bike or logged into mc ? or is that just a generic question the iphone asks all aps

 

[Zimmerframe]

why does it give you the option to be active in the backround when not using the bike or logged into mc ? or is that just a generic question the iphone asks all aps

You can set it to auto connect to the bike and auto record your rides. It can't do that if it's not running in the background.

 

[wepn]

It's funny I'm into the dorkiest, most esoteric data and that's something that attracted me to Specialized. Their open approach to app development allowed firstly eGenesis Eva then BLEvo as either addition, supplement or replacement of their own Mission Control. You can, if you wish, use one of those apps & calm any double paranoia by using a firewall. Nobody'll get your bike data then - except maybe your future hacker teenager.

After riding the Kenevo for nearly a year now, I don't use any app - the honest truth is I just ride what is probably the best bike of all the bikes I've ever ridden.