Implications of a privacy policy update on CIQ apps

When Garmin updates the privacy policy (or when the agreement "expires"), a pop up with the "I agree" option is shown on the Garmin Connect app at the moment that the user tries to download a Connect IQ. It happens before the usual "permissions pop up", if this one is needed for the app in question. ("Privacy policy update pop up" != "Permissions pop up"). I don't know what are the other possible triggers for the "Privacy policy update pop up". It appeared to me just a few days ago.

It seems that while the agreement with the privacy policy update is pending, some functions won't work. For example: reading some information of the user profile such as gender and birth year, or the initialization of the iOS SDK within a companion app.

I believe it has also a connection with the "device needs firmware update" issue (https://forums.garmin.com/showthread...to-update-your and https://forums.garmin.com/showthread...-Update-Needed). In the last days I've got a couple of emails from users reporting they couldn't download apps because of that old problem.

Probably there are more things that I didn't experience, and I cannot be 100% sure of everything I'm writing here. These issues are difficult to test, since such updates don't happen so often and as far as I know we can't "disagree" after we have agreed.

Therefore I'd like to request some information and suggest some changes.

- Am I right when I say that some APIs stop working when the agreement with the privacy policy is pending? Which functions do stop working exactly?
- Is it really necessary to block these functions, since the previously agreed policy allowed them?
- What are the triggers for the pop up? I always saw it when trying to download an app using the Garmin Connect app, but I suppose it would appear in other situations.
- I think it'd be great if the question would pop up immediately after the user opens the Garmin Connect app or Garmin Express. In my opinion, it could be even shown in notification or in an email.
- It's terrible for users and developers when our programs stop working out of the blue. In this case, it isn't even a firmware bug, but something already planned by Garmin. I'd understand if my suggestions are not going to be implemented, but in any case this has to be well documented.

Thanks for the attention and best regards

peterdedecker over 8 years ago

I believe it has also a connection with the "device needs firmware update" issue (https://forums.garmin.com/showthread...to-update-your and https://forums.garmin.com/showthread...-Update-Needed). In the last days I've got a couple of emails from users reporting they couldn't download apps because of that old problem.

I don't think that will have relation to your privacy policy issue.
I've also been working with a user on a vivo hr that is also getting the device needs firmware update and has trouble downloading my "fat burner" app (no privacy policy on this app). Even the brute force factory reset doesn't help him, he's able to download other apps but not fat burner...

r.485 over 8 years ago

The pop up I mention is the one about the user agreement with Garmin's privacy policy. It has nothing to do with the CIQ app's privacy policy, and the problems I'm talking about can happen with any CIQ app, even the ones without a privacy policy.

The content of this pop up is similar to the one that appears when you first make a Garmin account or when use it on Garmin Express or Garmin Connect Mobile.
In certain circumstances - which I do not know why or when - the GCM asks me to agree with it again. I assume it happens when there are changes in the policy, but maybe it also appears periodically, due to legal requirements imposed to Garmin by local governments. The fact is: a pop up to agree with the Garmin's privacy policy may appear to the user from time to time. In my case, it appeared when I was about to download an app from the Connect IQ store using the GCM. I suppose that there are other triggers and other places for it to appear, and I'd be glad to know what they are.

I have the feeling that our apps aren't able to read some data from the APIs while such an agreement is pending. It would be nice to know if it is true and which data isn't available in that situation. So that we can quickly diagnose the "problem" and guide the user to the solution.

In summary, I'd like to know:

- When and where the pop up asking the user to agree with Garmin's privacy policy can shown up?
- Is there a way to check if such an agreement is pending?
- Which data is blocked while this is pending?

I made the link with the "device needs firmware update" issue because all that happened at the same time. But this is just a guess.

Anyway, it's very hard to test and confirm my suppositions. I'd really appreciate if Garmin can give more information.

jim_m_58 over 8 years ago

With "device needs firmware update" for my users it's often when they just get a device. They set it up, and get a FW update right away.

But the app store doesn't know they got and installed the new FW, and thinks the device is on the same version as when it was when they first set it up.

The app store then says ""device needs firmware update" as it thinks it's still old FW.

Sometime, just having them sync with Garmin Express gets things back in line, and re-pairing with their phone might do it too.
And sometimes, the new FW is on their device, but they haven't installed it yet. Have them check "about" to make sure they are running the version that can be seen in Garmin Express, as that can be what was sent to the device, but it doesn't install until after they unplug.

r.485 over 8 years ago

Ok, guys, thanks for your thoughts on the "device needs update" issue, but I'd prefer if we keep it to another discussion. Here I'd like to emphasize the fact (or supposition) that a pending agreement with Garmin's privacy policy has some impact on our apps' functionalities. My main concern is to confirm that this relation exists and which functions of the APIs are blocked.

Former Member over 8 years ago

I don't know if Android or iOS restrict the capabilities of applications that have a pending policy agreement, but it seems possible. This could, in theory, cause Connect IQ features that rely on GCM to fail.

Connect IQ applications do not rely on GCM for most features, but do for things like web requests and companion application communications. It should not be possible for this type of state to affect something like retrieving weight or birth year from the user profile. Anything that functions with the phone turned off should be unaffected.

r.485 over 8 years ago

Thanks for the answer, Brian.

I also imagined that Connect IQ applications would not rely on GCM for most features. But I'm quite conviced that there is a state or a situation in which the birth year (and possibly other data) cannot be read from the UserProfile toybox (even when the permission was addded to the manifest and the user has agreed with it when downloading the app). Are you 100% sure that this situation doesn't exist?

Former Member over 8 years ago

I cannot be 100% sure that there is not a bug with the birth year data, but I know that the user profile data is read directly from the fit file that contains all of this data, which exists on the device and does not require a GCM connection. The birth year is read as a part of a profile structure that also contains all other elements of the Profile object, so if there was an issue getting the data, I would expect all profile values to be affected.

GCM can write to the file that contains this data, so it is possible for it to affect this information, but it seems very unlikely to me for a pending validation from the phone to cause GCM to invalidate the birth year on the device.