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Security bug - other person's activities can be seen if you sync their watch with your account via Garmin Express

Both my wife and I have got Garmin watches. When I took her watch (Garmin Forerunner 45S) and connected to my laptop, my Garmin Express and my Garmin Connect account, all her activity history for several years got uploaded to my GC account. I see 2 problems here:

1. Security - if I get hold of somebody's watch, nothing stops me from syncing it with my GC account via Garmin Express and obtaining every location and health data of this person for as long as they've had the watch

2. GC activities history mess - in my case, I had to go through all my activities in GC for the last few years to track down and remove my wife's activities. And this is not easy because GC doesn't allow you to filter activities by the device they were recorded on.

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trux over 2 years ago +1

profarvin said:
1. Security - if I get hold of somebody's watch, nothing stops me from syncing it with my GC account via Garmin Express and obtaining every location and health data of this person for as…

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0 trux over 2 years ago

profarvin said:
1. Security - if I get hold of somebody's watch, nothing stops me from syncing it with my GC account via Garmin Express and obtaining every location and health data of this person for as long as they've had the watch

Yes, that's how it works - if you have the watch, you have the data too. And you do not even need to sync the data to your account. You can access all the data over the USB cable directly on the storage of the watch.

profarvin said:
2. GC activities history mess

Yes, indeed it is not a good idea to sync a watch of another person to your account. And you are also not supposed doing it. That's not what it was designed for.

profarvin said:
I had to go through all my activities in GC for the last few years to track down and remove my wife's activities. And this is not easy because GC doesn't allow you to filter activities by the device

There are scripts available for that purpose, posted by fellow users, here on the forum. Check out for example the following thread: https://forums.garmin.com/apps-software/mobile-apps-web/f/garmin-connect-web/165851/can-i-delete-just-the-activities-from-a-single-garmin-device-from-my-garmin-connect-account

0 profarvin over 2 years ago in reply to trux

Well, I still think it's not a great idea to keep the history easily accessible but up to Garmin to decide. There is a reason why other devices allow you to encrypt personal data and why, for example, Strava allows you to hide starting and finishing points.

Thanks a lot for the script, this is brilliant, I've not seen it before! When I contacted tech support, they said there was no way to remove the activities in bulk or any faster than going one-by-one.

0 trux over 2 years ago in reply to profarvin

profarvin said:
Strava allows you to hide starting and finishing points.

You can do it in Garmin Connect too. See the Privacy Zone section at the bottom of the Privacy Settings at https://connect.garmin.com/modern/settings/privacySettings

0 e7andy over 2 years ago

You should have two separate accounts on the computer. One for you and one for your wife and switch between them. That way it is easier and safer to keep the data separated.

When you add the watch to Express you also add the watch to a Garmin account. Did you login to your account when it asked? If you login to the right account the activities should be uploaded to the correct account.