Fitbit is now officially part of Google

Post by xnx » Thu, Jan 14, 2021, 9:40 PM UTC

m00x wrote: post #108

tomComb wrote: post #93

I'm sure the sentiment here will be very much against this acquisition, but keep in mind that Fitbit was getting killed and would likely have gone out of business without this. It is tough for a company like Fitbit to compete with Apple & Samsung. This should lead to more competition by making it possible for Fitbit to compete with Apple. If it doesn't then the acquisition was a failure for Google anyway - Fitbit's c…

I have a Fitbit and I love this acquisition. I want to be able to put my fitness data in the rest of the Google ecosystem. The more data Google has on me, the more use I get out of Google's tools. I really don't care that it has tons of data on me, Google has been super responsible of my data and its uses. The risk/reward is 100% worth.

Post by Vermeulen » Thu, Jan 14, 2021, 9:43 PM UTC

wsloth514 wrote: post #50

Vermeulen wrote: post #15

I don't understand the fear of Google from FitBit users in these comments. Google has a clear user agreement with how they use your data, including not selling it - and they rely on users trusting them. I'd rather my data be with one of the tech giants than a unprofitable start up

It isn't just the data people fear. It is the product support, hardware decisions, and lifetime of the product. One, they have been become known for not making great hardware quality (See recent Pixel line issues). Besides Pixel lineup, there have been multiple hardware issues so they are not known for quality. Two, they have been known to screw up hardware features and do their own thing, see Nest lineup. This can b…

Post by mulletbum » Thu, Jan 14, 2021, 9:46 PM UTC

mav3rick wrote: post #149

eins1234 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read this honestly expecting a /s at the end. If you told me this was a failed attempt at obvious sarcasm now, I'd totally still believe you.

What has Google done with your data ? Even I was expecting a /s at the end of your comment.

Post by gman83 » Thu, Jan 14, 2021, 9:47 PM UTC

IgorPartola wrote: post #186

dr_dshiv wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol, I totally agree. I actually believe that they care a lot about protecting my data -- more than any other data caretaker. Probably because if they abuse our data it would be financially costly. But that's the beautiful thing about capitalism...

Apple has entered the chat. I am sure you’ve heard the argument before: Google is an advertising company. Using your data to sell you products is why they have your data. The more they can get, the higher their profits. Apple is a hardware company. They don’t want your data and store it begrudgingly because to them it’s nothing but liability. Whenever they can, they will encrypt your data in a way they can’t access i…

Post by colordrops » Thu, Jan 14, 2021, 9:49 PM UTC

erinaceousjones wrote: post #129

colordrops wrote: post #103

I deleted my account and uninstalled the app a few days ago - just in time to prevent google from slurping up my health data. I purchased a Mi Band 5 for $35 which is a vastly better device than fitbit equivalents for a quarter of the price. You can use it without data being sent to the cloud if you use the open source package GadgetBridge.

There's also "Notify & Fitness for Mi Band" for Android [1] which I used, which was ace. Packed full of advanced features like ability to change what calorie / basal metabolic rate calculations were used, export of the data locally / dropbox, export to google fit + strava etc., no dependency on Xiaomi's servers. Closed source, though. But appears to be one single persons personal project. Those products are awesome i…