In this digital age, when many of our electronic devices store extensive personal data, privacy has become an essential issue. One popular smartwatch, the CMF Watch Pro, released by Nothing’s sub-brand CMF, has recently become the subject of a disturbing privacy controversy.
Updated on February 19, 2024: CMF has acknowledged and confirmed to have fixed the issue. Although we have no evidence for that, we can hope that the issue is resolved now.
How It All Started
A user on Reddit recently revealed a disturbing incident involving the watch’s customizable watch face feature, where the background of the watch face is changed automatically with the photo of an unknown person.
The user allegedly discovered a CMF Watch Pro custom watch face depicting a person he claims to have never met or seen. Worryingly, the picture apparently was also never on the user’s internal storage, which begs the question of how it appeared on the watch screen.
Despite resetting his watch twice, the issue persisted, as reported by the user himself. Furthermore, similar incidents were reported by other Reddit users; one user claimed that the watch face randomly once displayed a picture of an old woman, which is a clear invasion of privacy.
Your Custom Watch Faces Are Not Private
Where are these images coming from, and how are they being set as watch faces on random users’ watches? One possibility is that CMF or Nothing is storing the custom watch faces of users on distant servers instead of storing them locally.
Strong personal photos of users on distant servers are never a good indication of privacy. Perhaps a bug or a glitch in the server is causing the images uploaded by some users to show on various other users’ watches.
Also read-Nothing’s CMF Neckband Pro Teased: What to Expect
Instead of having these images transferred to distant servers, CMF or Nothing should have them stored locally on their devices. This incident has brought up questions about the security of user data and the methods used by Nothing to manage users’ personal data.
Nothing, the parent company of CMF, has had a worrying past when it comes to privacy, the latest example being the Nothing Chats app, which was shut down even before its official launch due to serious privacy concerns.
Hopefully, CMF will take this issue seriously and come up with a solution as soon as possible. We also expect the company to be transparent about what exactly happened.
In the meantime, if you are a CMF Watch Pro user, refrain from using your photos as custom watch faces. If you still decide to create a custom watch face, keep an eye out for any unusual activity on your watch. Also, keep an eye on what CMF officially has to say about this disturbing privacy issue.
