Europe claims that it is possible to exploit consumers with medical and health insurance by combining Fitbit health data and data collected by Google for the acquisition of Fitbit, a wearable device manufacturer, and has a significant impact on privacy protection. The committee announced that it would conditionally allow the acquisition of Fitbit.
According to Google, the European Commission put a brake on the acquisition of Fitbit. The European Commission said it suggests that Google’s business practices over the past decade, precisely speaking, are generating global data revenue. Google has pointed out in September 2020 that the Fitbit data collection function could be taken into account and there could be a great risk of monopoly expansion and consumer exploitation.
Among them, the European Commission expressed three concerns. First is advertising. Google’s acquisition of Fitbit means that the technology that develops and operates a database that organizes user health information and a Fitbit database will be Google’s. Google considers it to be more difficult for its competitors to compete with Google’s services in the advertising market as it acquires vast amounts of data available for ad customization. It is pointed out that there is a possibility that advertisers may eventually face rising advertising costs and narrow their options.
Second, API access. In order to provide services to users and retrieve data, Fitbit devices access databases through WebAPI. The European Commission pointed out that Google may have restricted access to Web APIs for Fitbit to competitors, and said that this would sacrifice European digital healthcare startups.
Third is the sharing of wearable devices. The European Commission is concerned that Google could compromise its interoperability with competitors’ wearable devices or smartphones, resulting in penalties.
In response to the European Commission’s criticism, Google made the following promise. First, Google does not use user health data collected from Fitbit devices for advertising. In addition, Fitbit user data is clearly distinguished from Google data used in advertising. Google assured users of the European Economic Area to request permission to use Fitbit data when using Google services such as Google Maps, Search and Google Assistant.
Next, Google will provide a free license to Android OEM companies for APIs that cover core functions required for interoperability with Android smartphones in the future. In addition, it provides API source code that covers core functions required for interoperability to Fitbit competitors as open source. In addition, it will not degrade the user experience of a third-party wearable geek or interfere with access to the Google Play store of third-party applications by means of requiring permission to display warnings or error messages.
The European Commission decided to accept the acquisition of Fitbit on condition that it was presented with the Google promise and adhered to the promise. According to Google, the European Commission was able to approve the proposal to acquire Fitbit because the contract guarantees that the wearable device market and the new digital health market will be open and competitive. How to use the data collected by Google for advertising purposes How to protect Android terminal interoperability, users can choose whether to share their data, he said.
Google believes that the European Commission has been constructively working together to address regulatory concerns by proposing a legally procedural commitment to this acquisition, and believes that this will accelerate wearable device innovation and enable the development of products that support healthy living. Said. Meanwhile, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is also in discussions on Google’s acquisition of Fitbit, and once this approval is granted, the acquisition of Fitbit is expected to be completed. Related information can be found here .