Oura, the brand behind the best smart ring in 2025, is in hot water with some users over a blog post about the brand's growing partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). With diehard Oura Ring customers going as far as canceling their subscriptions, here’s everything you need to know.
In a recent post on Oura's website, the brand announced an expansion of its partnership with the U.S. military by way of investing in a brand-new factory — predicted to be up and running sometime in 2026 — in Fort Worth, Texas.
What's the Oura U.S. military controversy about?
So, what's the big deal? A few things. First, Oura's acknowledgment that the U.S. DoD is the brand's "largest enterprise customer" didn't sit right with some users, particularly those who oppose one or more of the U.S.'s current military strategies.
But that's not all. Oura also confirmed that the controversial company, Palantir, known for what some might call aggressive surveillance/data-mining techniques, is managing the privacy and security side of things for the brand's military customers. Palantir is also known for its involvement in the ongoing U.S. immigration crackdown (among other things). So, yeah, it's not exactly a warm and fuzzy company.
Should you be worried about your Oura Ring data?
Fortunately, Tom Hale, the CEO of Oura, made it crystal clear in a TikTok post that individual customer data is handled completely separately from enterprise customer data. Moreover, to ease concerns, the brand additionally issued a statement confirming that Palantir is not a partner of Oura, but rather, "provides the security layer for some of the DoD’s projects with Oura."
Beyond that, Oura's privacy policy confirms that the brand will never share your data with a third party without consent. While these clarifications surely will calm the nerves of some users, others are still uneasy.
For further clarification on how customer data is handled and what privacy safeguards the brand has in place, I've reached out to Oura for comment and I'll update this story if/when I hear back.
Oura's partnership with the U.S. military is nothing new
It's also worth noting that Oura's partnership with the U.S. military isn't exactly new. The brand has been supplying rings to various branches going back to 2019.
According to the same post announcing the expansion, the smart ring maker was initially tapped by the Naval Health Research Center (NHRC) after a deadly fatigue-related accident in 2017.
In an effort to mitigate crew member exhaustion and future tragedies, the NHRC provided service members with Oura Rings to monitor vitals. And since then, Oura has provided "tens of thousands of rings" to the U.S. military.
Oura says that the ongoing partnership is purely about helping service members perform at their best, with a focus on four key areas, including stress management and resilience, fitness and recovery optimization, fatigue risk management, and early illness detection.
Are you sticking with Oura?
Ultimately, the panic over the U.S. military gaining access to Oura Ring customer data is almost certainly overblown. With separate methods for handling standard customer data and enterprise customer data, not to mention consent-based safeguards in place, it's highly unlikely that the CIA is monitoring your resting heart rate as we speak.
That said, customer concerns about Oura's partnership with the military, more generally speaking, are valid. And if you fall into that category, I have good news: Oura isn't the only smart ring show in town. Here are the best Oura Ring alternatives in 2025.
On that note, what do you think of the Oura Ring/U.S. military hoopla? Are you ditching your Oura Ring or sticking with it? Let me know in the comments below.
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