Takeaways
- Google’s collaboration with Apple for coronavirus contact tracing, along with Fitbit’s similar efforts, may be questioned by regulators as they scrutinize the Fitbit/Google merger.
- Google and/or Apple may control not only the base ecosystem but also act as gatekeepers to the exchange of sensitive health-related information among users, or among users and private institutions. In that regard, wearable technology such as Fitbit tracking devices could play a frontline role in tracking and collecting granular health data.
- For regulators, the centrality of Google and Apple in collecting health-related data, starting with developing a foundational platform for coronavirus contact tracing, may be viewed as the first step toward the creation of a digital ecosystem for the exchange of healthcare data across multiple devices and platforms. The control of such an ecosystem in the hands of Google, especially when the company is in the process of acquiring leading wearables company Fitbit, is likely to create questions by regulators.
Google’s collaboration with Apple to create a foundational open-architecture system for coronavirus contact tracing is an important new development that may be questioned by regulators as they scrutinize the Fitbit/Google merger.
Additionally, Fitbit
announced yesterday, April 14, that it is collaborating on a similar project with Scripps Research Institute and Stanford Medicine. Taken together, the Apple-Google proposal and Fitbit’s project raise questions about market share among leading hardware companies for gathering health and physical activity data. There is also a question of whether Google and/or Fitbit will extend even further into these areas, which have already been a source of scrutiny for data privacy advocates.
“Yes, there are concerns,” noted Tracy Rosenberg, executive director of Media Alliance, in reference to the proposed contact tracking. “Health data like what you eat, what you weigh, how you sleep and how much you exercise, when combined with alerts about any time you are within 6 feet of another person, when combined with all of the information Google holds from online activities like search, GPS, and YouTube, is more than enough to profile anyone, and profiling is not just about personalized ads when a country is in a state of emergency,” she wrote in an email to Reorg. Media Alliance is among the groups urging regulators to block Google’s proposed acquisition of Fitbit.
The urgency of governments across the globe, especially in the United States and Europe, to minimize any impact from the coronavirus pandemic and to jumpstart economic activity will rely heavily on technology that can retain the benefits of social distancing, yet forgo the pains of a total lockdown.
In this context, Google and Apple’s
announcement to create an open-architecture platform using Bluetooth technology on smartphones to trace the spread of coronavirus-infected patients and create a framework for “smart distancing” could find mainstream acceptance. The contact tracing ecosystem, while still in its infancy, could gain ground as governments opt for a varied approach to social distancing by focusing their energies on certain geographic clusters, rather than shutting down entire communities and countries.
However, the collaborative initiative between the two tech giants may fuel privacy and data sharing concerns that have been top-of-mind for regulators across jurisdictions, especially in the EU.
Groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, or EFF, have already raised privacy concerns about proximity tracing. Specific objections are likely to depend on the details of any proposal by Google, Apple, Fitbit and other companies.
“Generally speaking, lots of companies could theoretically” build systems for proximity tracing, said a spokesperson for the EFF, a nonprofit tech privacy group. Such companies include those whose apps use geolocation data and those accessing Apple or Google APIs to include Bluetooth proximity in their products, the spokesperson said.
However, an in-depth
analysis by the EFF notes that in order for proximity tracing to be effective, a sufficient number of people would need to use the same platform.
The technology is likely to coalesce around a small number of tech companies, because there is little overall utility if people are dispersed among various platforms. If either Google or Fitbit helps lead the way in proximity tracing - or, more interestingly, if both Google and Fitbit are leaders - then combining the companies may raise additional regulatory questions.
In the future, Google and Apple could have the ability to collect massive amounts of health-related information from smartphone users, beginning with whether patients have tested positive for coronavirus. Over time, it is reasonable to expect that such a technological tool, supported and used by governments, could provide companies such as Google a gateway into the digital patient-healthcare ecosystem.
Google and Apple could control not only the base ecosystem but also act as gatekeepers to the exchange of sensitive health-related information among users, or among users and private institutions.
Wearable technology such as Fitbit tracking devices could play a frontline role in tracking and collecting granular health data - from heart-rate tracking and sleep patterns to measuring BMI to chronic condition management - in order to create a comprehensive healthcare map across populations and communities in a highly digital world.
As Reorg reported
previously, data monopolization and data privacy issues feature prominently in regulatory discussions with respect to the Fitbit/Google merger. For regulators, the centrality of Google and Apple in collecting health-related data, starting with developing a foundational platform for coronavirus contact tracing, may be viewed as the first step toward the creation of a digital ecosystem for the exchange of healthcare data across multiple devices and platforms. The control of such an ecosystem in the hands of Google and Apple, especially when the former is in the process of acquiring leading wearables company Fitbit, is likely to raise questions as regulators review the transaction.
A technology ecosystem such as the one being built by Google and Apple could raise novel regulatory questions related to data sharing and transmission. Many of these issues are central to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR. As Reorg reported
previously, the EU’s tougher stance against Google could potentially lead to different outcomes regarding data in the U.S. and European antitrust reviews of the merger.
While the coronavirus contact tracing technology proposed by Google and Apple could pave the way for a more expansive digital healthcare architecture led by the two companies, the Bluetooth technology underpinning the contact tracing project may also be
constrained by the accuracy of Bluetooth in measuring short distances.
Despite these constraints, the urgency of the situation has led governments to back collaborative projects such as the one proposed by Apple and Google. Whether the technology ecosystem proves to be effective in checking the spread of coronavirus remains to be seen. Nevertheless, regulators in the United States and European Union are likely to be more circumspect when assessing Google’s potential to monopolize healthcare data as a result of its Fitbit acquisition in a post-coronavirus economy.
Reorg M&A’s previous coverage of this transaction can be found
HERE.
--Shrey Verma, Ryan Lynch