The Google Fitbit deal after being scrutinized by regulators was finally confirmed this week. Fitbit, the producer of the Smartwatch, continues to be bought by Google after the sale was finally approved by regulators.
The $2 billion Fitbit deal was initially announced in 2021 coupled with raised lots of speculations. The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) was your body responsible for the oversight from the application of Europe's strict data protection rules. The overall Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) had thereby raised its concerns over the privacy of Fitbit users' data.
This Fitbit deal might have possibly given Google access to a huge amount of its users' data. However, Google has decided to not use the users' health insurance and location data to promote. This also followed a study in to the sale by the European Commission and just later, the deal was approved.
Google has assured the protection of Fitbit users' data via a blog and declared its purchase as \”about the devices, not the data.\”
Rick Osterloh, senior vice president, devices and services said, \”We caused global regulators on an approach which safeguards consumers' privacy expectations, together with a number of binding commitments that confirm Fitbit users' overall health data won't be employed for Google ads and this data is going to be separated using their company Google ads data.\”
Google has also agreed that Fitbit data will stay away from information used that is specifically employed for advertising.
Fitbit CEO, James Park, reassured the users' regarding their data security and privacy via email. \”The trust of our users will still be paramount, and we will maintain strong data privacy and security protections, giving you control of your data and staying transparent by what we collect and why.\”
He added, \”Google will continue to protect Fitbit users' privacy and has designed a series of binding commitments with global regulators, confirming that Fitbit users' health and wellness data will not be used for Google ads and this data will be kept outside of other Google ad data.\”
