Google’s plan of purchasing the Fitness tracker company FIBIT has gotten so many people talking. According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), addition of Fitbit users to Google’s original customers would decrease rivalry in certain health and wellness administrations and different business sectors in Australia. Google mentioned its interest in purchasing the Fitbit Inc. Since last November and have also made it known that the purchase would only go through when the competition regulators all over the planet accepts and gives the go-ahead order. The first regulator body to show its concern about the deal was the ACCC, while the European Commission and US department are still contemplating and making decisions about the deal. But it is likely that both would accept the thoughts of the ACCC regarding the issue. A lot of Fitbit users are worried about this deal due to the fact that Google already has strong tracking algorithms and now the addition of Fitbit’s vital information to it could jeopardize their privacy. Google hasn’t given much details about how it would handle the data but users are already worried about the outcome of the deal and how it might affect them.
SHARING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
All users of Fitbit can agree to the fact that the app collects vital and personal information such as height and weight, heart rate, phone number, exact location, food data, speed pattern etc. Female users can also input their menstrual dates, fertile days, ovulation days etc. The ACCC says that Fitbit possesses unique attributes that other wearable gadgets do not have.
GOOGLE’S PRIVACY REASSURANCES ARE NOT BINDING
However, Google has assured the users of Fitbit, that Fitbit would not for any reason be used for Google advertisements and hence their data and information are safe. According to the Conversation, a Google spokesman has started that the data gotten from Fitbit would be kept safe just like their other products
Even after Google’s reassurance, the ACCC still does not believe that Google would exempt Fibit’s data from its advertising. Chair Rod Sims, the competition regulator has stated that It would be silly to think that all the promises made by Google about Fitbit’s data would still be valid after five years.
Earlier when Google merged with Double click, an online advertising site, it also assured its users that it would only join personal data from the 2 business only when the users decides to but removed this statement from its terms and policy after 8 years. Furthermore it is necessary to note that Google has not promised to keep your Fitbit data safe and away from their non-advertising business. That means Google do not need to put your data in an advertising site for them to make money. It could be in form of `health services ‘ or maybe `health and life insurance’ in the future.
GOOGLE’S HUGE DATABASE ADVANTAGE
Google has the largest database collection of users data in the world. It gets data from YouTube, Gmail, Google Maps, Google Nest, Android etc. and also data gotten from other websites related to Google such as Google ads, reCAPTCHA etc. The ACCC is more worried that if Google lays it’s hands on Fitbit, it would use it as another means of gathering user data and information while having access to one of the most largest and precise fitness and health datasets in the world