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Fitness trackers have been around for a while now, but Amazon started testing its first fitness-focused wearable earlier this year. It can measure body fat percentage, analyze the tone of your voice, and it's available now for an initial $99.99 along with a $3.99 monthly fee but the real cost might be your privacy.

Halo calculates body fat percentage rather than weight or BMI because Amazon says it's a better indicator of health than those stats alone. But how it goes about computing that might not sit well with some folks: Amazon asks you to strip down to your underwear or other similar skintight clothes and capture photographs of your body in 360 to send to its cloud servers. (Perhaps not the best look for a company run by the guy who got his phone hacked by a Saudi prince.)

The band itself looks pretty nonthreatening there's not even a screen.

Obviously, sending semi-nude photos of yourself to Amazon is a pretty big asking price for more privacy-conscious individuals. But that's not the only cost. While $99.99 buys the band itself, users will be asked to pony up 3.99/month for a subscription after six months. Without that, only basic features like heart-rate and step tracking will remain accessible.

Halo promises some unique features for sure (like a microphone that analyzes your tone of voice and tells you if you sound too annoying if that seems appealing?), but early reviews are pretty scathing and most people won't be excited about buying a tracker that requires a monthly fee to continue working properly. Sales of the Halo may not reach into the heavens, but at least it will leave some lasting legacy it's inspiring elected officials to consider implementing more safeguards that protect users' private health data.

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Amazon's weird Halo band is now available if you want to pay $4/month for fitness tracking - Android Police