What the BACtrack uniquely brings to the table are its compact size, Bluetooth syncing, and predictions of the time of your return to sobriety. More-reliable products that use fuel cell sensor technology, the kind that both the BACtrack and police departments rely on, range anywhere from $50 to $100. Its $149.99 asking price makes it no impulse buy, especially compared with much more affordable devices - the keychain variety typically cost as little as $10. When you get down to it, the BACtrack Mobile Breathalyzer really is a standard personal Breathalyzer at heart, though admittedly a very fancy one. With that information it wouldn't take much for strangers to piece together your home address. That means you may accidentally share your home's location down to your cross streets - something I almost did. In other words, you can't pick and choose which data to share. I noticed that there was no way to disable the BACtrack from attaching geotagging data to breath readings unless I went completely anonymous. While I tested the BACtrack at The Churchill, a local CNET New York watering hole, I also did most of my drinking at home. ![]() You are given a choice to publish results, or not, via these channels after each reading. The BACtrack even lets you share readings on social-media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Anonymized or not, I can't think of a good reason to make this information public, ever. In my mind, the fact that you can tag drinks down to the specific brand of beer and that the company has just opened up the gadget to third-party developers only compounds the issue. As always, any pool of data becomes potentially valuable for marketers or other third parties. It certainly sounds like a noble cause, but there's a real potential for privacy violations. He told me that approximately 10,000 people die every year in drunk-driving-related accidents and that he hopes this shared information will "create a dialogue and raise awareness of this serious issue." Nothacker also explained that since today many people, including me, are reluctant to disclose BAC readings, he's "trying to take the stigma away from BAC levels." He said that the idea is for people to have an honest discussion about how alcohol affects them and reduce the instances of drunk driving. I asked BACtrack founder and CEO Keith Nothacker why his company would want to collect this type of data anyway. Every time I viewed WorldView, the San Francisco Bay Area (where the company is based) was displayed. For example, you can't search for particular users within the map, called BACtrack WorldView, and typically it showcases the region of the globe with the highest concentration of BACtrack readings. To be clear, though, the information the BACtrack system scoops up isn't easy to find. Keep in mind that this is my personal experience with the BACtrack and other users with different metabolisms and alcohol tolerances no doubt won't have identical results.īe careful or you might give away your location by accident. I took this to mean that since I was drinking slowly, in my opinion, plus I ate dinner while imbibing, my body was able to absorb alcohol at a reasonable rate. My BAC dropped slightly again even though I opted for another (final) brew - down to 0.027 percent. 2, which I drank in about 30 minutes (and after waiting for an additional 15 minutes). ![]() Interestingly, my BAC levels slid down to 0.033 percent after beer No. At this level, the BACtrack reported that my reasoning and memory should be slightly impaired while the paper manual pointed out that I should also be experiencing a "loss of shyness." Keep in mind that the manual also took pains to say that driving skills may be impaired beginning at BAC levels of 0.04 percent and higher. Brian Bennett/CNETĪfter consuming one 12-ounce beer I was beginning to feel a buzz my BAC reading came back as 0.035 percent, nowhere near the U.S. Share results via Facebook or Twitter if you dare. ![]() Take your BAC reading and see an estimated time for your return to sobriety.
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