Advocacy group Noyb on Thursday filed complaints in opposition to Google-owned Fitbit in Austria, the Netherlands and Italy accusing the health monitoring firm of violating the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) privateness regime.
Vienna-based Noyb (None Of Your Business), the digital rights group based by privateness activist Max Schrems, has already filed a whole lot of complaints in opposition to massive tech firms starting from Alphabet’s Google to Meta over privateness violations, some resulting in massive fines.
Fitbit forces its customers to consent to information transfers outdoors the EU and doesn’t present the chance to withdraw their consent, violating GDPR’s necessities, Noyb stated.
Fitbit sells watches that observe exercise, coronary heart price and sleep. It additionally gives a subscription service beginning at $9.99 (practically Rs. 830) a month.
“Given that the company collects the most sensitive health data, it’s astonishing that it doesn’t even try to explain its use of such data, as required by law,” stated Bernardo Armentano, information safety lawyer at Noyb.
Fines for violating GDPR guidelines can attain as much as 4 p.c of a agency’s world annual income. Google’s annual income was $280 billion (practically Rs. 23,15,350 crore) in 2022.
The advocacy group desires Fitbit to be compelled to share all necessary details about the information transfers with its customers and permit them to make use of its app with out having to consent to the transfers.
While GDPR permits each particular person to withdraw their consent, Fitbit’s privateness coverage states that the one method to withdraw consent is to delete an account, which suggests shedding their beforehand tracked exercises and well being information, Noyb stated.
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