The best part is the random bill.

• Go to the doctor. Get blood drawn.
• Doctor send the blood to a lab for the test. Doesn't tell me who. I don't care who. It's their subcontractor, let them worry about it.
  *Go back to the doctor or get a call for results. Pay the doctor the standard co-pay.
  *Months later a random company sends me a bill. This is a company that I have never interacted with or entered into any contract with, for work that somebody else (presumably my doctor, but who the fuck knows for sure) asked them to do for them, sending the results to that other person and NOT to me.

The system is broken. If any other company subcontracted a part of their work to a third party, you as the client would reasonably expect that work to be paid through the original contract, not get a bill directly from the subcontractor. I didn't hire them, the doctor hired them. As far as I'm concerned, that's the doctor's subcontractor and their debt, not mine. I paid the doctor already.

Or another variant.

• Go to the emergency room.
• Get separate bills FOR THE SAME SERVICE from the hospital, the doctor, and somehow the hospital again but this time it's the emergency room (which is somehow separate with a different billing company).

The system is not just broken. It is designed to fleece us and train us to always accept whatever debt the institutions decide to levy on us without question.

As medical bills can't currently ding your credit score, I just throw them in the trash.

My watch runs for years from a coin cell. There's no way that I'm replacing it with an internet connected spy device that constantly needs to be charged.

I have a decent sense of time and an abundance of options to verify it

I'm looking at getting a Pebble.

I tweaked. Many (most?) don't.

You would have a nervous breakdown in my house. Clocks in every room and 20 watches hanging in my room.

I'm looking at getting a Pebble.

What types of data does the US sell to advertisers? Do you have ANY evidence of the always listening mic? You'd figure after 10 years of this we'd have at least some evidence, right?

As long as the wearable contains open source software and preferably open source hardware, then sure, I'd be willing to do so. Because then I could know that I could control where the data went.

I don't know if the USA currently sells data. It appears to be illegal but the current administration doesn't always play by the rules.

Have you ever used a phrase activated voice assistant (hey Google, Alexa, Siri). They are always listening in case you use the phrase. Amazon and Google both admit they record and stores voice data. Google sells ads based on search history.

Only up to $500 though? And if you keep ignoring them, what will you do when you run out of providers? I can't go to the one hand expert in the area because I owe him money. Same for the CVS doc.

I'm looking at getting a Pebble.

I have a decent sense of time

I don't lol. I mean can check outside, even out in the middle of nowhere, and have a rough idea; but I like knowing it because that's just how my brain works.

and an abundance of options to verify it

Sure. Phone, computer, microwave, oven, TV, wall clock, city clock tower, someone else's watch, etc. But again, I like having it right on my wrist. I've worn watches by my own choice since I was a kid, and now I've got a small collection.

So the vaccine is the government implanting a tracker into me, but watches that track my vitals and send them God knows where is hunky dory?

These anti government types always have such a hard time when they become the government.

I chose to stop wearing a watch more than 20 years ago. I thought about getting one for the health benefits five years ago, but concluded that I don't want to have a watch nor cover an awesome tattoo. As a friend once wrote, "wearing a watch is like being handcuffed to time."

“wearing a watch is like being handcuffed to time.”

That's perfect! I'm stealing this. I HATE, despise, loath in every respect clocks, watches, calendars and any other form of scheduling oppression. Go pound sand - I'll show up when I show up.