College students nationwide are accustomed to swiping their ID cards for almost any of their needs on campus, but Boston College’s plans to make students use those ID cards to start exercise machines at its new fitness center will allow officials to monitor their individual exercise habits and possibly notify students who are exercising to the point of endangering themselves.
“We will be able to see how many people are using what machines at what time,” said BC Associate Athletics Director John Pagliarulo.
Though he said the school plans only to track the mileage on each machine to monitor attendance and usage, Pagliarulo did not rule out the possibility of using the system to record individuals’ use of the machines to recognize those who show signs of having exercise bulimia.
The disorder — in which people attempt to purge themselves of calories by burning them off in unhealthy amounts rather than vomiting — is prevalent in colleges, particularly among athletes, said National Eating Disorders Association President Ovidio Bermudez.
“At every campus, you have an abundance of kids who overwork themselves,” Pagliarulo said. “This technology is not specifically designed to detect that, but it could be a tool in helping out students with a problem.
“We are not going to look up everyone’s personal workout history — that would be blatant misuse,” he added. “However, if a concerned family member or healthcare worker approached us, we could be justified in watching out for our students.”
Privacy advocacy groups say the system’s potential to regulate students’ exercise time crosses the line from a university administration acting responsibly into the realm of intervening in personal choice.
“Compiling this kind of database is both silly and scary,” said Rebecca Jeschke, spokeswoman for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
“When someone uses the gym, they are doing an inherently personal activity,” she continued, and called any potential future moves by any school to track users’ personal activities “unnerving.” Such a system would also have loopholes that would make it impossible to accurately monitor exercise activity, she said.
“Students will find ways around [using] machines, or [borrow] their roommate’s ID,” she said.
However, universities may rate the possibility of students inflicting bodily harm or even death upon themselves by working themselves too hard as more important than initial concerns about invading privacy, said Alexandra Donnelly, the clinical director of California rehabilitation center Casa Palmera.
“If swiping a key card to use an exercise machine means a student doesn’t become ill, it’s a small price to pay,” she said. “This disorder, if not treated, can take a serious – if not deadly — toll on a student.”