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Posts tagged: Privacy

16 posts found

A dark metallic smart ring on a textured surface, representing the last independent hardware in an industry racing toward subscriptions
SubscriptionWearablesConsumer Rights

The No-Subscription Smart Ring Is Not Dead. The Industry Just Wants You to Think So.

Oura filed for IPO. RingConn got pulled from Amazon. Ultrahuman and Luna are banned in the US. A Reddit user asked if the no-subscription smart ring dream is dead. It is not. But the remaining options are smaller, founder-led, and built on economics that venture capital hates.

James Hoffmann James Hoffmann
May 25, 2026 11 min read
A digital lock concept representing how wearable companies trap user health data behind proprietary APIs and subscriptions
ApiData PortabilitySubscription

The API Trap: How Wearable Companies Make Your Health Data Disappear When You Cancel

Most wearable APIs are not built for you. They are built for partners who build features that keep you subscribed. Here is how the data lock-in actually works, and how Pulsyn does the opposite.

James Hoffmann James Hoffmann
May 24, 2026 13 min read
View through an airplane window at night, representing the disconnected environments where most health trackers fail but Pulsyn keeps working
Offline FirstLocal FirstArchitecture

Your Sleep Tracker Should Work on a Plane. Ours Does.

Most health trackers treat your phone as a dumb pipe to their cloud. When you turn on airplane mode, the app becomes a brick. Pulsyn's architecture assumes the opposite: your phone is the computer, the database lives locally, and the cloud is an optional extra.

James Hoffmann James Hoffmann
May 23, 2026 13 min read
A dark abstract visualization of encrypted data streams and digital security
EncryptionPrivacySqlcipher

How Pulsyn Encrypts Your Health Data: SQLCipher, 600,000 PBKDF2 Iterations, and Why We Do Not Know Your PIN

A technical deep-dive into Pulsyn local-first encryption stack: SQLCipher, AES-256-GCM, 600,000 PBKDF2 iterations, and why we intentionally cannot recover your data if you lose your PIN.

James Hoffmann James Hoffmann
May 22, 2026 11 min read
A close-up of a smart ring on a finger, representing the wearable health tracking market Oura dominates but may not hold
OuraIpoSmart Ring

Oura Just Filed for IPO. Here Is Why It Will Flop.

Oura filed for its $11 billion IPO with 5 million subscribers and $2 billion in projected revenue. The catch: its core business model is a subscription paywall on health data that competitors already offer for free, sitting on top of a canceled Pentagon contract and an active class-action lawsuit.

James Hoffmann James Hoffmann
May 22, 2026 12 min read
Cloud server infrastructure with blue lighting
Local FirstPrivacyOn Device Ai

Why Your Health Data Doesn't Need a Cloud

Every smart ring app ships your biometric data to a server before showing you your own sleep score. The cloud isn't there for your convenience. It's there for their business model.

James Hoffmann James Hoffmann
May 21, 2026 11 min read
AZ Mobile ID Cover
PrivacySecurityReverse Engineering

Reverse Engineering Arizona's Mobile ID App

What I found inside a state government digital identity application with 500K+ installations

James Hoffmann James Hoffmann
Apr 23, 2026 11 min read