Not too long ago word broke that the company behind popular wireless smart thermostats, Nest, had been acquired by Google for $3.2 billion. This is actually one of Google’s most expensive acquisitions, its right up there with YouTube and Motorola. Despite the fact that the Nest team is now part of a much bigger company with significantly more resources, not a lot of people are happy about the acquisition, in fact some have heavily criticized it due to privacy concerns. Addressing those concerns, Nest CEO Tony Fadell has revealed that any future changes to the company’s privacy policy will be opt-in, and that Nest will be “transparent” about the changes made to the privacy policy.
Fadell made these comments at the DLD Conference in Munich. He said that right now no changes are planned, and that all user data will remain in “Nest’s world.” Though he doesn’t rule out the possibility of changes being made to the privacy policy down the line entirely, saying that whatever changes are made, Nest will be transparent about it and that customers will be able to opt-in to them if they want to. Its not hard to understand why Fadell wants these concerns to subside, part of the reason why Nest would have agreed to an acquisition would be the opportunity to expand exponentially, and with Google writing the cheques, its going to be a lot easier than ever before.