![]() ![]() The only things that change are your current weight and the target weight you have entered. However it doesn’t prevent the user from continuing with that weight.Įxcept our research shows that the plan is always the same regardless of the data you enter. September 2021 update: BetterMe now display a new low weight warning when a user enters a weight under the World Health Organization’s recommendations. a weight target that would kill you), you are presented with a ‘plan’. ![]() That means even when you enter a completely unrealistic weight target like 30 kilos for 160cm (i.e. Regardless of the target weight you enter, BetterMe Meal Plan will have a ‘plan’ for you. The last round of questions pertains to measurement: age, height, weight and target weight. The test requires you to define your body type (‘rectangle,’ ‘hourglass,’ ‘pear’ and ‘round’ for women ‘ectomorph,’ ‘mesomorph,’ and ‘endomorph’ for men) before going on to lifestyle questions: what does your typical day looks like (at the office, taking long walks, doing physical work…), when were you last at your ‘ideal weight,’ what your ‘bad habits’ are (not getting enough sleep, eating late at night, eating too much sweet or salt, soft drinks…), how much do you exercise, what are your energy levels like, how much do you sleep, how much water do you drink, what kind of food you enjoy eating… We’ve observed that even when your goal is not losing weight, the test will still ask you to define your ideal weight and provide you with the same weight loss plan whatever your ideal weight is. During our research, we observed that after this point, the questions will be identical no matter the gender you indicated, but the illustrations will change.īetterMe Meal Plan then asks you to define your goal: losing weight, gaining muscle, or developing healthy habits. BetterMe Meal plan starts by asking if you are a man or a woman. ” BetterMe creates apps for healthy living: diet, walking, running, yoga, meditation, period tracker… They claim to have “50 million installs” across their apps and “6 million members across social media platforms”. T hey claim to have a team of over 100 people working for them and to be “one of the largest partners of Facebook/Google/Snapchat/Twitter from. ![]() However, a look at the career section of their website reveals that they operate from Kyiv, Ukraine. BetterMe Meal PlanīetterMe Meal Plan is part of the BetterMe family of apps run by BetterMe Limited, a company registered in Cyprus. It is worth noting however that some internet users are targeted by those very companies without ever searching for weight loss-related topics. BetterMe Meal Plan and Noom were the first ads that came up on Google after a search for “weight loss,” while VShred targeted us with ads on YouTube following that search. ‘Body profiling’: who are the companies trying to know you and what are they trying to sell?įor the purpose of this research, we have looked into three companies offering tests online to help you ‘find the diet that is best for you’: BetterMe Meal Plan, Noom and VShred. Given our previous experience with depression tests and the current environment of vast and often unlawful data collection, Privacy International looked into those tests to find out what data those companies were collecting, what those programmes involved, where the data was going, and who it was shared with. Facebook, for instance, still gives the option to advertisers to target teenagers with an ‘interest in extreme weight loss.’Īs part of our research into the “AdTech” industry, Privacy International noticed that the diet ads we were targeted with led us to tests aimed at creating a so-called profile of our body and eating habits, to design a dieting programme, which they said were specific for our needs. Social media platforms have tried addressing the problem: Facebook has banned ‘"before-and-after" images or images that contain unexpected or unlikely results’ for users under 18, TikTok banned ads promoting fasting apps and weight-loss supplements Instagram hides posts that promotes the use of certain weight-loss products from users under 18 and Twitter prevents advertisers from targeting people suffering from eating disorders. This is even more problematic due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has seen the numbers of children with eating disorders “ soar”. Some of the products and programmes sold have been described as scams, with a very real impact for those suffering from eating disorders and those who fall prey to these ads. For many, browsing the internet or checking social media comes with its fair share of being targeted with ads selling “fad diet” subscription-based programmes, magic weight-loss powders, or promising a secret trick to lose weight quickly.
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