Google’s$2.1 billion dealto assume fitness tracker manufacturing business Fitbit has attracted the attention of antitrust hatchet man at the Department of Justice , fit in to reports that first emerged in theNew York Post tabloidand were subsequentlyverified by Reuters .
Normally , deals of this sizing have to be approved by either the DOJ or the Federal Trade Commission , which also has federal antitrust authority . But according to the Post , a reference said the DOJ and the FTC engaged in an “ branch wrestling ” over who would treat this one , as the the Department of Justice Antitrust Division has alreadylaunched a competition probeinto Google ( as have lawyer general in50 U.S. states and territorial dominion ) as part of a broader Union critical review of the tech industry . What ultimately end up happening with the Fitbit acquisition could be an early sign of where the bigger Union investigation of Google is heading . Attorney General Bill Barr recently said that he hopes the technical school probe will becompleted next year .
It was n’t now percipient what the focal point of the Fitbit investigation is . The deal could give Google a much - take boost in the wearable market , which is presently dominate by competitorslike Apple and Samsung . But Google is in the big information and internet advertizement business . That ’s madeprivacy counselor warythat the skill could give it access to a riches of wellness data on Fitbit ’s users , promise by the companythat it would never sell Fitbit data point notwithstanding . DOJ antitrust chief Makan Delrahim suggested short after the Fitbit fusion was revealed in November that datum and privateness could becomebig anticompetition concerns , as they can greatly dissemble the shaping of marketplace mogul .
Photo: Richard Drew (AP)
Per Wired , Google not only pursued the Fitbit deal while it was face up multiple antimonopoly inquiries , but announced it simple day before it add up to light that Google had partner with health systems company Ascensionon “ Project Nightingale . ”That endeavor allowed Google to get at significant , non - anonymized health data on what islikely 10 of millionsof Ascension patients include gens , diagnoses , science laboratory results , birth escort , and more , all without apprise the patients or doctors take . Project Nightingaletriggered a Union inquiryinto whether it violated the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ( HIPAA ) . Google is alsofacing another lawsuitover a data point - sharing task with the University of Chicago Medical Center that run from 2009 to 2016 .
“ What I ’m telling my bookman is , this is a great test case , ” University of Tennessee College of Law prof and former DOJ antitrust official Maurice Stucke told Wired . “ The agencies say they ’re concerned about these data point - opolies . They ’re function to scrutinize their information - drive acquirement of these small house . Here you have this give firm that ’s already set up a pregnant hoarded wealth trove of personal data . So , is anything go to exchange . ”
Stucke add up that one possible way the feds could change their treatment of these position is by treating claims that data will remain private after uniting as critically as they do title that cost wo n’t climb . Antitrust officials would “ routinely reject ” such promises as unenforceable , Stuck say . Meanwhile , Google and its subsidiarieslike YouTubehaverepeatedly been finedfor playingfast and loosewith user privacy promise , and it made similar assurances that did n’t pan out when it develop Nest in 2014 andlater migrated substance abuser accountsinto the centralized Google ecosystem . ( In what is perhaps not the most encouraging sign that the DOJ will take in force action , wire notedone meta - analysisby economic expert John Kwoka has found U.S. antimonopoly officials have already done badly at preventing cost increase after mergers . )
nonprofit including theOpen Markets Institute , Public Citizen , andElectronic Privacy Information Centerhave all urged U.S. antitrust potency to block Google from accept over Fitbit .
“ Google should not make control of Fitbit ’s sore and individualized health information that can be integrated with data from its current service to dig in its monopoly tycoon , ” the groups write in a letter , per the Irish Times . “ Through its vast portfolio of cyberspace inspection and repair , Google knows more about us than any other company , and it should not be take into account to add yet another way to track our every move . ”
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