Monday, April 22, 2019

The Peloton is watching and listening






From 2017:
It’s also worth noting that the Peloton tablet attached to the bike has a front-facing camera and microphone built into it. Peloton says this can be used for video chatting among members — a feature that almost every single Peloton user I spoke to while writing this story said they’ve never used. How customers feel about the camera and microphone probably depends on whether they’re also the kind of person who covers up their laptop camera and uses encrypted messaging apps, but I’m not embarrassed to say I felt unnerved having a camera aimed at me while I was sweating my way through online classes. One person close to the company told me that Michelle Obama has a Peloton, but it’s been modified, without a camera or microphone. Peloton declined to comment on this at all, as did the press office of Michelle Obama.