Facebook’s Fitness App Buy Is About Location, Location, Location

[Commentary] If you’re like me, you woke up scratching your head this morning after seeing that Facebook had acquired the company behind Moves, a popular fitness app.

Does Facebook want to enter the fitness app market, especially as others seem so ready to do the same? I doubt it. Here’s why.

Moves is a fitness app, yes. But using your iPhone’s accelerometer and other hardware, Moves’ core technology automatically recognizes your movements throughout the day, while logging your habitual routes and the places you usually visit. The company spits out a visualized map of your activity, which it calls a “daily storyline” of your life. And all of this is done passively, as the technology runs in the background on your smartphone while using minimal battery power.

This is exactly the type of data and technology Facebook loves. Facebook wants to be the be-all, end-all for your online identity -- that’s why it asks you about where you’re going, where you’re from and the type of stuff you like to do. It’s all an effort to build a complete digital profile of exactly who you are.