As the EU probes Google's Fitbit deal, the DoubleClick fiasco lingers - Business Insider

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Google's deal for Fitbit faces an EU probe — and regulators who watched the company break a major promise after buying DoubleClick in 2008

This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers.The EU Commission has announced it is launching an in-depth probe into Google's proposal to acquire wearables maker Fitbit.

More importantly, the data of more than 28 million users would be sucked up into the Google mothership, and it's this bit that regulators are worried about. "The Commission is concerned that the proposed transaction would further entrench Google's market position in the online advertising markets by increasing the already vast amount of data that Google could use for personalization of the ads it serves and displays.

At the time, Google promised it wouldn't combine DoubleClick's database of user's web browsing information with Google's own account data, and the deal was approved following an extended investigation by the EU.Four years later, Google's move is coming back to bite it as regulators decide whether to approve or veto the Fitbit deal.

Like DoubleClick, user data is at the center of Google's Fitbit acquisition, and consumer groups from around the world have petitioned the regulators to closely scrutinize the deal. The European consumer organization BEUC said the deal would be a "test case" for analyzing potential data monopolies brought about through an acquisition.

 

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