Google has closed its deal to acquire fitness wearables company Fitbit, even as probes by competition regulators in the United States and Australia are yet to conclude. The Alphabet-owned company has stressed that "the deal has always been about devices, not data". The announcement comes nearly a month after the European Union (EU) approved the deal, subjecting Google to certain restrictions such as keeping Fitbit data siloed from Google's ad business. We worked with global regulators on an approach which safeguards consumers' privacy expectations, including a series of binding commitments that confirm Fitbit users’ health and wellness data won't be used for Google ads and this data will be separated from other Google ads data. — Rick Osterloh, Senior Vice President, Devices & Services, Google Osterloh also went into detail about how it will keep access to Application Programme Interfaces (APIs). The Alphabet-owned technology giant's "commitments" are the result of a months-long investigation by the European Commission into the acquisition's anti-competition concerns. Fitbit has 25 million active users, and has sold over 120 million devices to date. Europe squeezes out commitments from Google on data silos, access to Android tools In December, the European Commission, the RU's executive arm, gave its nod to the deal, subject to multiple conditions imposed on Google. The Commission's probe, launched in August 2020, focused on the data collected via Fitbit's wearable devices and their interoperability with Google's Android Operating System for smartphones. It was concerned that Google would harm competition in the EU raising…
