Google has closed its deal to acquire fitness wearables company Fitbit, even as probes by competition regulators in the United States and Australia are yet to conclude. The Alphabet-owned company has stressed that “the deal has always been about devices, not data”. The announcement comes nearly a month after the European Union (EU) approved the deal, subjecting Google to certain restrictions such as keeping Fitbit data siloed from Google’s ad business. We worked with global regulators on an approach which safeguards consumers’ privacy expectations, including a series of binding commitments that confirm Fitbit users’ health and wellness data won’t be used for Google ads and this data will be separated from other Google ads data. —