So I joined a new gym last year and was pleasantly surprised. They gave me a smart card to get in and out, that’s it, no app, no accounts, no nothing. Well, today I got to the gym and saw the announcement that they are phasing out the access with the smart card and starting to use, you guessed it, an app.
Now, I know this is not such a big deal in the grand scheme of things. But I’m just tired of this trend of replacing perfectly functioning systems with apps (public transport tickets come to mind). Just more ways to harvest people’s data, I guess…
Ah and by the way, in my previous gym they not only required an app for accessing the place, they also incentivized people to track their workouts, meals and bodyweight using the gym’s app (of course I never used any of these features).
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn’t great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don’t promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
Related communities
Chat rooms
-
[Matrix/Element]Dead
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
- 0 users online
- 57 users / day
- 383 users / week
- 1.5K users / month
- 5.7K users / 6 months
- 1 subscriber
- 2.97K Posts
- 74.6K Comments
- Modlog
Ah I missed the part where you said “and charge you.” There’s nothing in contracts like these that says the gym has to let you identify yourself in any way you choose and I don’t see why you think there would be.
I’m guessing he was referring to the actual practice of a gym doing something like that. I’m sure there is whatever statement in the gym contract that says that they can change access. I wouldn’t know. I just use the gym in my apartment.
In practice, most businesses will work to accommodate you if there is a change like this and you can’t adapt. Someone else mentioned that their gym has an app and it doesn’t work all the time and have to use fobs still. Most managers will work with a customer and take care of the few that need extra attention.
Most gym employees don’t have that level of discretion in the US at least. Most gyms I’m aware of are franchises and asking a wage employee to go against their corporate policies risks their livelihood.