I had high hopes for the UHC Motion program. Earning some cash just by doing
what I was already doing, being active.
Privacy concerns
The problem for me was in terms of how much data they wanted access to. Even though the program is based solely on your number of steps you take, they wanted access to seemingly all of my information.
This included, but not limited to:
- Number of steps
- Weight
- Heart rate
And if you didn’t want to allow access to everything (by just selecting to share
your steps) you couldn’t proceed into the sign up and setup.
Applicable exercises
Even if I was okay giving that much information, I found that the program really
caters to walkers / joggers / runners and not necessarily to people that active
by other means, like biking / exercising / doing weight training.
Unfortunately for me (and many other, as I have found out) I had given them
access, added the UHC Motion application to my FitBit Inspire HR and was
stuck with it.
There was no obvious way to remove the application from my FitBit. The “Apps”
section in the FitBit application didn’t have an “uninstall” button the way the
optional Notifications application did. This meant that I was stuck with this
menu item that would 100% never be useful to me again.
Fortunately, even with the application installed on my device, access to my data
could easily be revoked, so at the very least, it’s not like all of my personal
health information wasn’t being funnelled to my insurance company.
Removing UHC Motion from FitBit
As mentioned, it seemed like a TON of people were having this problem, and as of the time of this writing, there was nothing documented that I could find that
would help uninstall the application from a FitBit device.
The thread I had found on the FitBit website was already years old and was still
being actively bumped with people looking for a way to remove the stubborn
application.
Because I can be more stubborn than a privacy infringing application, I was
determined to figure out how to remedy this situation.
As it turns out, it didn’t really take much for me to get the application
removed and to date, the application has not magically re-installed itself on my
device (something I saw some folks claiming was happening to them).
So how did I do it?
Uninstall the application from your phone
This one should be pretty self explanatory. I am currently on an Android device,
but it’s a safe bet you should do the same thing if you’re on an iOS device.
Just go ahead and completely remove the UHC Motion app.
Revoke Access from UHC Motion
With the application removed from your phone, head over to the application
permissions page (make sure you’re logged in) and “Revoke Access” to
UHC Motion.
While you’re in there, you should revoke access to anything else you’re no
longer using or don’t recognize.
Clear User Data from your FitBit
I really wanted this application gone, and I was okay losing some data to pull
it off. I waited until the end of the day and made sure to sync my device so I
wouldn’t lose the day’s activity.
From the device, swipe up until you get the cog labelled “Settings” then swipe
down until you get the refresh button labelled “Clear User Data” and follow the
on screen directions.
At this point, the device was cleared and believe it not, the UHC Motion
application was no longer showing up on the menu!
Setup your FitBit again
After performing a factory reset on the device, you will need to setup the
device again by going into the FitBit application on your phone and setting up a
new device.
I’m actually shocked that things were this painless. It’s been over a month
since I originally did this and I’m happy to report that I’m still UHC Motion
free on my FitBit Inspire HR!
While I wasn’t able to test it, so I only have the one FitBit, I’m hoping these
steps will work for other models. Obviously YMMV.
