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Fitbit is now officially part of Google

blog.fitbit.com

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Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google

#231

Post by hapticmonkey »

aboringusername wrote: post #42

One thing that confuses me is why this data needs to be stored within the internet at all. Why can't I have an entirely offline driven system? Data stays local, no ability to upload it online at all, and all processing is done without ever needing the internet. That's a key criteria if I ever was thinking of getting a smart wearable, I'm not going to generate even more data that can be profited from and potentially u…

Apple's health data is all stored offline, unless you have iCloud enabled for health data, in which case it's end-to-end encrypted and only used so devices can sync. You can choose to share certain data for their research programs.

The answer as to why other companies store data online should be obvious: There's a business can for having access to that data.

Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google

#232

Post by tormeh »

Tijdreiziger wrote: post #206
leokennis wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that’s the thing. I work for a bank. If I had unlimited access to all transaction data without needing to request elevated access and jumping some more hoops, it would greatly speed up my daily work. But...it would also greatly increase the damage any hacker could do. Same applies to Google. It’s super convenient to have everything “on Google”. Until the day Google is exposed/hacked/turns evil. Then it’s a disast…

> Until the day Google [...] turns evil You mean this hasn't already happened?

I hear it's the least evil of the FAANGs. And then there are oil companies etc. I think relative to the average company Google's doing alright.

Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google

#233

Post by gretch »

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…

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-advertising/apple-c...

Apple makes 2 billion a year on advertising projected to go up to 11 billion in 5 years. While a fraction of total rev, I don’t think it’s correct to round off 2 billion and say they are somehow not an advertising company as well. (You don’t have to be just 1 type of company)

Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google

#234

Post by Ericson2314 »

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…

Google and Apple (or any other big tech pairing) pairing don't compete as strongly as we would like. Even ignoring the fact I don't want a stronger google, I also don't think this will provide meaningful competition to Apple at all.

Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google

#235

Post by wlesieutre »

IgorPartola wrote: post #183
thatguy0900 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If this is a reason for acquisition, then why wouldn't G*gle wait until they were "killed" so they could come in and buy their business for pennies on the dollar? Because what Google wants to buy is their marketshare and existing userbase. I very much doubt fitbit has any tech or products google couldn't make themselves in a few months. The longer fitbit sucks compared to their competition the lower that becomes.

Hahaha I literally laughed out loud at this. Google making products. Have you seen how they make products? They have killed more physical products than they have delivered. They discontinue them more frequently than an average person throws out a napkin. Their first gen products are usually overpriced trash (Google Glass? Nexus Q?). If Google could pump out electronics with the speed and quality of someone like Anker…

They nailed the Nexus 7, but that was a while ago (2012 and 2013)

EDIT - never mind, Asus made both of those

Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google

#236

Post by _underfl0w_ »

blisterpeanuts wrote: post #223
rvz wrote: post #153

Translation: Google now has access to all your fitness and health data and will be integrated into Google Fit. No thanks and no deal.

Five or six years ago, I would have said, "Great! Now my Fitbit will be better integrated with Android and my Google ecosystem. Plus it will inject some much needed stability into a faltering company, to bolster the quality and advance their products. Yay!" Now I think about the fact that I just looked someone up on contacts.google.com, then added a visit with them to calendar.google.com, and talked with them about i…

> Looking forward to a nice Linux/open software fitness watch

Haven't bought one yet, but the PineTime watch from Pine64 seems nice. There's apparently already a FOSS os/firmware or two as well.

Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google

#237

Post by confiq »

IgorPartola wrote: post #227
confiq wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

exactly this ^! remember thefappening? Imagine what shitstorm would be if that would happen to google...

The point isn’t which protects your data better from outside breaches (though I would argue Apple does a better job of protecting its phones), but how they use your data and who they can expose it to. Apple provides storage. Google sifts through your data to help them direct you towards products from which they can get kickbacks. It’s not some external entity that you have to worry about. It’s the company to whom you…

It could be that I've blocked ads in my network or my extreme hate for ads lead to have unpopular opinion about it.

Every company uses my data for analytic purposes. Ads that I do see in google play are almost same as I see in apple store. Both take my data and try to serve me the best. In fact, I don't think it's necessary evil but what bothers me is pretending that one company save my data better or make me believe they don't analyse my data.

Everybody does it, who says it does not analyse your data, he is lying.

You know apple has news-advertising and searchads that is based on iAds[1] ? Trust me, they need your data to work properly!

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAd

Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google

#238

Post by reportingsjr »

IgorPartola wrote: post #183
thatguy0900 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If this is a reason for acquisition, then why wouldn't G*gle wait until they were "killed" so they could come in and buy their business for pennies on the dollar? Because what Google wants to buy is their marketshare and existing userbase. I very much doubt fitbit has any tech or products google couldn't make themselves in a few months. The longer fitbit sucks compared to their competition the lower that becomes.

Hahaha I literally laughed out loud at this. Google making products. Have you seen how they make products? They have killed more physical products than they have delivered. They discontinue them more frequently than an average person throws out a napkin. Their first gen products are usually overpriced trash (Google Glass? Nexus Q?). If Google could pump out electronics with the speed and quality of someone like Anker…

They have an entire hardware division that regularly churns out quite high quality consumer hardware: nest. They also have a pretty big hardware group that makes high performance servers and specialty hardware (TPU servers among other things). They have a few other hardware divisions as well.

Google would have absolutely no issue creating quality fitbit devices. Whether or not the market would be there for them to stay in long term, I don't know.

Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google

#239

Post by nl »

eins1234 wrote: post #145
m00x wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

I agree with this at least to some degree.

I think you'll find a lot of smart tech people do, but don't post on HN because it disagrees with the prevalent view so you just get downvoted, or called an astroturfer.

Re: Fitbit is now officially part of Google

#240

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

IgorPartola wrote: post #183
thatguy0900 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If this is a reason for acquisition, then why wouldn't G*gle wait until they were "killed" so they could come in and buy their business for pennies on the dollar? Because what Google wants to buy is their marketshare and existing userbase. I very much doubt fitbit has any tech or products google couldn't make themselves in a few months. The longer fitbit sucks compared to their competition the lower that becomes.

Hahaha I literally laughed out loud at this. Google making products. Have you seen how they make products? They have killed more physical products than they have delivered. They discontinue them more frequently than an average person throws out a napkin. Their first gen products are usually overpriced trash (Google Glass? Nexus Q?). If Google could pump out electronics with the speed and quality of someone like Anker…

Glass was never a finished product. It was sold as a dev kit that non-devs snapped up.
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