Google and Fitbit Announced Merger, US Government States Investigation Over Acquisition Still Ongoing

Sieeka Khan, Tech Times 15 January 2021, 11:01 am

Google and Fitbit have officially announced that they are merging, however the US Department of Justice says that investigation of acquisition is still ongoing, making it difficult to merge.

Google and Fitbit merges

The announcement was written by Rick Osterloh, the Senior Vice President of Devices and Services at Google wrote in a blog post on January 14, 2021.

James Park, the CEO of Fitbit, wrote that Fitbit is now officially a part of Google.

However, Leah Nylen, a reporter for Politico, wrote on Twitter that the US government has not reached a final decision about whether to pursue an enforcement action, thus not finalizing the merging of the two companies.

Also Read: Fitbit Users Thinking Of Ditching Their Devices Because Of The Google Merger

According to the report, the Division continues to investigate whether Google's acquisition of Fitbit may harm competition and the consumers in the country. The Division will continue to conduct this review thoroughly, efficiently and expeditiously.

A Google spokesperson said that they complied with the Depart of Justice's extensive review for 14 months and they agreed upon the waiting period that expired without their objection. The spokesperson said that they will continue to be in touch with DOJ and they are committed to answering any additional questions.

This confusion came as Fitbit users who had deleted their account before the merger received emails from Fitbit to their private addresses.

Software engineer and author Tanya Janca stated that in 2019 she made a massive deal about having permanently delete her data before Google bought Fitbit, and that the helpdesk said that Fitbit erased her information. However, she still received an email from Fitbit at her private email address, which surprised her.

Janca added that she does not want Google having her personal data that she kept in the systems of Fitbit and that the company promised her through direct messages that her personal data were erased before the merger.

Chris Garaffa, the author of "Tech for the People" stated on Twitter that he had the same experience.

Neither Google nor Fitbit responded to a request from the media regarding these occurrences.

Google and Fitbit user data

Google paid $2.1 billion to acquire the rights to the fitness-gadget maker Fitbit, but the news of the merger had raised alarms from privacy critics.

Google makes most of its money by selling advertisements based on the information that it collects about its users' interests and location. Privacy watchdogs feared that it might use Fitbit to gather more information about people's private lives.

However, Google wound up having a series of commitments in Europe and other countries pledging that it won't use the health and fitness data from the 29 million users of Fitbit to sell more advertisements.

Google insists that it is more interested in adding Fitbit to its expanding products, which include laptops, smartphones, cameras, speakers and thermostats.

The acquisition of Fitbit has not yet been approved in Australia, but Google won EU antitrust approval in December 2020 for its Fitbit bid after agreeing to restrictions on how it will use customers' health-related data.

Google claims that it will have a separation between Google user data and the user data from Fitbit to make sure that users have an effective choice to deny Google's other services having access to their data.

Fitbit, just like other fitness trackers, monitor the users' steps and calories burned. They also measure heart rate, floors climbed and how long people sleep.