Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, September 26 (Xinhua)-- Google will begin to require Fitbit wearable users to move from their Fitbit accounts to Google accounts, a conversion that could become mandatory in early 2025.

Before and after the $2.1 billion acquisition of Fitbit in January 2021, there were concerns about user privacy and whether Google could access it directly. In an update to the Fitbit support page, this permission change may occur within a few years.

CTOnews.com has been informed that currently, Fitbit devices use a Fitbit-specific account, which in most cases is independent of the Google system. The exception is when the user enables the option to share Fitbit data with various Google applications, otherwise it will be saved separately.

Based on changes to the Fitbit support page discovered by The Register, Google will prompt users to log in using the Google account starting in 2023. New users who register for an account or existing users who want to access the new features must use the Google account associated with Fitbit.

Other users who separate Fitbit accounts from Google can avoid doing so, but there is a time limit. "support for Fitbit accounts will continue until at least early 2025," the support page says, after which users need Google accounts.

The change is seen as beneficial to users, including "single sign-on for Fitbit and other Google services, industry-leading account security, centralized privacy control of Fitbit user data, and so on."

While the move has attracted the attention of industry watchers, Google has pledged to handle the migrated data carefully as it uses user data to support its products and services.

"Google will continue to protect the privacy of Fitbit customers and has made a series of binding commitments with global regulators, including confirming that Fitbit user health data will not be used for Google advertising," the page said. "these data will be kept separately from Google Ads data."

The commitments are intended to allay concerns that regulators are reviewing Fitbit acquisitions. These commitments, which last for a decade, require technical separation of Fitbit user data, preventing data from being used in Google Ads, and ensuring user choice because it involves granting access to the data, among other elements.

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