Most of the online chatter about how Google buying Fitbit is a crisis waiting to happen has died down. That's good in some ways while being bad in other ways. It seems all good crises are that way. With the dust settled, I've spent some time looking at how it all played out and have come to what I think is a group of interesting observations: a lot of people do not like Google at the company level, and a lot of other people try to capitalize on that fact.

You shouldn't blindly trust Google when it comes to your data. The minute we stop questioning is the minute it can do whatever it likes.

It's perfectly OK, even healthy, to not like Google. What the company does to make money can seem sneaky or even dangerous. When a single company can build such a strong and well-fitting profile on us through data collection, being uneasy is a good thing. Even if you have a good understanding of how Google does what it does, and more importantly why it does it the way it does, skepticism is warranted. I use Google products and understand the value of what I give for the services I get in return but still don't like giving so much away.

But that's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about people who aren't quite sure how Google makes money, only to have the company buy out their favorite fitness wearable manufacturer. Those folks have oodles of data stored through Fitbit and are rightly concerned about what Google is going to do with it all. That's healthy concern and I wish more people cared enough to have it. If this is you, the tl;dr is that Google will let you yank it all away if you like, but if you don't, they aren't going to monetize any of the data you've previously stored.

More: What Google plans to do with your Fitbit data

This sort of concern only becomes a problem because of the misinformation that surrounds it. You've likely seen a social media post about how Google is so evil it will sell all your health data away now that it has purchased Fitbit (assuming regulatory approval is given). Some of these postings are from people who know better, but also know that feeding into user fears is a great way to promote yourself or your company. The same way that the "Apple is killing the planet by using rare-earth metals" is designed to confirm your bias, articles or posts like "Google now has all your health data and you should be terrified" is. Both are nonsense and I am disappointed at several people about what I've seen in this space.