Google is scooping up Fitbit, a corporation that has sold about 120 million products in 100 nations since its establishment in 2009, while facing a number of U.S. lawsuits by the Department of Justice and Prosecutors General of the Administration.
As per an IDC survey, with 14.8 per year-over-year rise, behind Xiaomi and Apple, Fitbit is considered to be the fifth largest wearable company in shipments as of 2019. More than 100 million devices and 28 million users are confirmed to have been sold.
Through selling advertisements based on information it gathers about the interests and whereabouts of its billions of users, Google makes most of its revenue. Privacy watchdogs worried that Fitbit could be used to peer ever further into the lives of people. However, Google ended up entering into a series of commitments in Europe and other parts of the world that promised it would not use Fitbit’s 29 million users’ health and fitness data to sell more advertisements. It insisted that it is more interested in adding Fitbit, to smartphones, tablets, speakers, cameras and thermostats, its expanding arsenal of Internet-connected goods. Rick Osterloh, Google’s senior vice president of hardware and services, wrote in a Thursday blog post, “This deal has always been about devices, not data, and we have been clear since the beginning that we will protect the privacy of Fitbit users.”
The lawsuits argued that Google has been exploiting the power it has amassed as the owner of the most powerful search engine in the world. The case from the Justice Department is not expected to go on track until September 2023.
By way of its Android operating system, Google has been a dominant player in email, digital maps, and web browsing and mobile devices. A digital advertisement empire has been driven by the popularity of such free services and is the key reason why Google’s corporate parent, Mountain View, California-based Alphabet Inc., has a market cap of approximately $1.2 trillion.
Up until January 13, the US Department of Justice had to object to the Fitbit contract, but did not file a formal objection. Thursday, the department didn’t respond immediately to a request for comment.
As per Google’s agreement with international regulators, Fitbit’s 29 million users’ privacy will continue to be covered.
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