STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Advocacy group Noyb filed complaints against Google-owned Fitbit in Austria, the Netherlands, and Italy, accusing the fitness tracking company of violating the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) privacy regime.
Vienna-based Noyb (None Of Your Business), the digital rights group founded by privacy activist Max Schrems, has filed numerous complaints against big tech companies over privacy violations, which have resulted in significant fines.
Noyb claims that Fitbit forces its users to consent to data transfers outside the EU and does not provide the option to withdraw their consent, thus violating GDPR requirements.
Fitbit is a company that sells watches that track activity, heart rate, and sleep, and also offers a subscription service starting at $9.99 per month.
Bernardo Armentano, a data protection lawyer at Noyb, expressed astonishment that Fitbit does not explain its use of sensitive health data, as required by law given that the company collects the most sensitive health data.
Violations of GDPR rules can result in fines of up to 4% of a firm’s global annual revenue. In 2022, Google’s annual revenue was $280 billion.
The advocacy group is demanding that Fitbit share all mandatory information about data transfers with its users and allow them to use its app without consenting to the transfers.
Noyb stated that while GDPR allows individuals to withdraw their consent, Fitbit’s privacy policy states that the only way to do so is by deleting an account, resulting in the loss of previously tracked workouts and health data.
(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
Credit: The Star : Tech Feed
