Garmin Connect Privacy Review: How Safe Is Your Fitness Data?

Following some new, original research, Gadgets & Wearables finds that Garmin Connect takes a balanced approach to personal data collection, landing in the middle of the pack among competitors.

According to its analysis of Apple’s App Privacy labels, Garmin Connect collects 12 data types in total: six for app functionality and six for purposes beyond core features. Importantly, Garmin’s app shows no Apple tracking designation, meaning it doesn’t share user data with third-party services for advertising purposes.

Yet, Garmin falls behind the most privacy-focused apps in the study. Polar Flow leads the way by collecting just five data types, with only two used beyond functionality. Even Apple Fitness collects nine types, while Samsung Health collects nine as well.

What Data Does Garmin Connect Actually Collect?

Apple’s privacy labels reveal that six elements of data collected by Garmin power core functions: your health and fitness metrics (workouts, heart rate, sleep), GPS location during activities, activity logs and notes, device identifiers for syncing, basic app usage patterns, and crash reports for troubleshooting.

The other six types serve broader purposes. Your email address is used for account management and marketing communications. Activity feeds into social features such as leaderboards and challenges. Search history helps personalise product recommendations. Various identifiers and usage patterns contribute to analytics and product development, helping Garmin refine its ecosystem over time. Fair enough.

Should Garmin Users Be Worried?

A: Not particularly.

Garmin vs Competitors: Privacy Comparison, The Raw Data

Taking Control of Your Garmin Privacy

Garmin’s default approach is reasonable, but you can tighten things further if privacy concerns you. Start in the Privacy section of your account settings—set your profile to private, disable social network sharing, and hide the start and end locations of your activities. You can even create privacy zones around your home and workplace so activities automatically obscure those areas on the map.

The Communications settings let you opt out of promotional emails and newsletters you don’t need.

Under Connected Apps, audit which third-party services have access to your Garmin data and disconnect anything you’re not actively using. And on iOS specifically, you can limit location access to “While Using” rather than “Always,” and make sure tracking permission stays disabled.

Source: Gadgets & Wearables

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Last Updated on 31 January 2026 by the5krunner

the5krunner

tfk is the founder and author of the5krunner, an independent endurance sports technology publication. With 20 years of hands-on testing of GPS watches and wearables, and competing in triathlons at an international age-group level, tfk provides in-depth expert analysis of fitness technology for serious athletes and endurance sport competitors.