Consumer groupings oppose Google’s Fitbit package, say regulators must watch it such as a hawk
An international band of consumer teams and NGOs denounced Google’s bid for sports smartwatch-maker Fitbit Thursday, saying it would threaten privacy and grant the search giant unfair usage of a new market.
Google’s $2.1 billion acquisition of the maker of smartwatches and fitness trackers was unveiled in November and rang alarm bells among global regulators over antitrust and personal privacy worries.
Fitbit is a good pioneer in the market for connected watches and other physical activity sensors that gauge the number of daily techniques taken, calories burned or perhaps hours of sleep.
Several 20 NGOs “possess significant considerations” that the takeover “would be a game-changer not merely for how people interact with the online world also for digital and related health markets,” a statement said.
“Regulators all over the world... must therefore offer it their utmost focus,” they said, contacting it a “test circumstance” on facing down big tech firms.
The groups involve BEUC, which unites EU customer advocates, along with the Consumer Federation of America in america and digital rights groupings in Mexico, Brazil and Australia.
EU antitrust regulators, who are to decide on the deal by July 20, are specially worried about Silicon Valley giants investing in their way into innovative areas and stifling competition.
“Wearable devices could replace smartphones as the key gateway to the internet, just simply as smartphones replaced personal computers,” the NGOs reported a statement.
“Google’s expansion into this market, edging out different competitors would therefore be significant,” they added.
A good Google spokesman rejected the statements.
“Throughout this process we have been clear about our commitment never to use Fitbit health and wellness data for Google advertising and our responsibility to supply persons with choice and control with their data,” the spokesman said.
“Similar to our other products, with wearables, we will be transparent about the info we collect and just why. And we usually do not sell private information to anyone.”
In February, the European Data Protection Plank urged Google to make significant assurances on privacy and data before it approved the buyout.
Australia’s Competition and Client Commission last month raised considerations that the deal could “even more entrench” Google’s dominance and “adversely affect competition in a number of digital advertising and wellbeing markets.”
