{"id":351927,"date":"2020-05-13T15:16:02","date_gmt":"2020-05-13T13:16:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=351927"},"modified":"2020-05-13T15:17:04","modified_gmt":"2020-05-13T13:17:04","slug":"google-under-fire-over-fitbit-acquisition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/business\/351927-google-under-fire-over-fitbit-acquisition.html","title":{"rendered":"Google under fire over Fitbit acquisition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Google\u2019s takeover of fitness tracker Fitbit could be \u201ca game-changer\u201d for health data that will need close European Union scrutiny, consumer advocates\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.beuc.eu\/publications\/beuc-x-2020-035_google-fitbit_merger_competition_concerns_and_harms_to_consumers.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">said<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Reviewing how Fitbit\u2019s data could add to Google\u2019s powerful position in online advertising makes the deal a test case for regulators, said BEUC, which represents consumer associations across Europe. It argues that wearables create a new frontier by tracking users\u2019 health and location around the clock.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe use of data from wearables in tracking Covid-19 infections and providing access to doctors and health information is a timely illustration of this,\u201d BEUC said Wednesday. The takeover would place Google \u201cin an unassailable position in digital health and wearables markets.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Google\u2019s plan to buy Fitbit is running into a wall of antitrust and privacy concerns in the U.S., Europe and Australia, where competition officials are increasingly wary of how internet giants can exert control over data. The deal advances the plans of Google parent Alphabet Inc. to expand in the health-care sector by adding data from Fitbit\u2019s more than 28 million users.<\/p>\n<p>Google declined to comment, but referred to remarks it made in a November 2019\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.google\/products\/hardware\/agreement-with-fitbit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">blogpost<\/a>.<\/strong> It has\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2020-02-25\/google-fitbit-probe-is-for-me-not-data-watchdogs-vestager-says\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">previously<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0said it plans \u201cto work constructively with regulators to answer their questions\u201d about the deal and won\u2019t sell personal information to anyone.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFitbit health and wellness data will not be used for Google ads. And we will give Fitbit users the choice to review, move, or delete their data,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n<p>Google hasn\u2019t yet sought EU approval for the deal, which is already getting a close look from the U.S. Justice Department. European privacy regulators, who don\u2019t examine takeovers, added pressure on the region\u2019s merger watchdog with a rare\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2020-02-20\/google-must-cut-privacy-risks-on-fitbit-deal-eu-data-regulators\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">call<\/a>\u00a0on Google to limit any privacy and data protection risks.<\/p>\n<p>BEUC asks the EU not to trust pledges from the company, saying it \u201cshould not rely on any usage restrictions that Google may promise.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have seen in the past how strategic mergers in digital markets have led to unprecedented market power for a handful of tech giants\u201d by collecting \u201cgigantic volumes of data,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Now read: <a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/gadgets\/350985-smartwatch-sales-surge-despite-coronavirus-pandemic.html\" rel=\"bookmark\">Smartwatch sales surge despite coronavirus pandemic<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google\u2019s takeover of fitness tracker Fitbit could be \u201ca game-changer\u201d for health data that will need close European Union scrutiny, consumer advocates\u00a0said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":252297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[20473,25235,64635,167,17320,45947],"class_list":["post-351927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-data-privacy","tag-fitbit","tag-fitness-bands","tag-google","tag-smart-watch","tag-wearables"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351927"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351927"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":351929,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351927\/revisions\/351929"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}