Watchdog to probe Google’s Fitbit play

The ACCC will work with international bodies to investigate Google’s planned takeover of Fitbit.

ACCC chair Rod Sims has competition concerns. Picture: Zak Simmonds

Australia’s competition regulator will work with international bodies to investigate Google’s planned takeover of fitness device company Fitbit.

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission on Thursday said Google’s purchase of Fitbit raised concerns and an investigation would take place.

Fitbit does more than produce activity trackers, fitness monitoring smartwatches and wearable technology. At issue also is the fate of more than a decade of users’ fitness data collected when they walked, ran, cycled and swam.

ACCC chairman Rod Sims told The Australian he had three concerns, including that the merged entity would damage competition in the emerging health services market.

“The health services market is where data is used for people or companies to improve health and wellbeing, or data is used to gain insights which might be helpful to insurance companies, employers, and so forth.

“If you combine that (Fitbit’s) with Google data, that could lead them to getting a dominant position in the market. This removes Fitbit as a competitor to Google.”

He said his second concern was that Fitbit data would cement Google’s dominance in advertising technology.

His third concern was that Google could deny its health sector rivals access to its WearOS operating system, Google Maps, Google Play Store and Android smartphone interoperability.

The ACCC aims to make its decision on the proposed takeover by August 13.

Mr Sims acknowledged the difficulty of a single country like Australia seeking to intervene in an international merger between two foreign firms, despite reviews of the proposal in the US and by European Union antitrust regulators.

He said he had already held discussions with overseas agencies including the EU.

“We’ll be exchanging with them, what our concerns are, what their concerns are; we’ll be working very closely with our international counterparts and we know them very well.

“If we were to oppose it (the takeover), then the transaction could not proceed in Australia, so Australia would have to be carved out. Stopping a transaction in a country like Australia does have implications for Google and Facebook. It would make it very awkward for them, if that’s where we get to.”

He said the ACCC wanted to hear from organisations with an interest in the health information market.

Separate to competition concerns, privacy organisations are worried about the fate of Fitbit data and how Google could leverage it if the takeover were to proceed.

Google senior vice-president Rick Osterloh in a blog post said Google would not use Fitbit data for advertising. “We will never sell personal information to anyone. Fitbit health and wellness data will not be used for Google ads. And we will give Fitbit users the choice to review, move, or delete their data.”

Australian Privacy Foundation chair David Vaile said he did not trust Google’s assurances about data protection.

“Their core business is basically a commercial surveillance business,” Mr Vaile said. “They're also the experts of cheating people’s and other technologists’ attempts to depersonalise, or anonymise or de-identify data.

“Google is very keen to get into the health informatics … that side of the data world. It’s more than a temptation (to use data), it’s their core model.”

Last night Google issued a further statement pledging to protect Fitbit data. “Throughout this process we have been clear about our commitment not to use Fitbit health and wellness data for Google ads and our responsibility to provide people with choice and control with their data,” a Google spokesperson said.

“Similar to our other products, with wearables, we will be transparent about the data we collect and why. And we do not sell personal information to anyone."