Amazon has acquired Roomba company iRobot, the creators of the most popular robot vacuum cleaner. However, with the Amazon Roomba deal now set in place, privacy experts are terrified for the future.
Security experts worried about Amazon Roomba deal
Following the announcement of the Amazon Roomba deal, many have expressed discomfort over the acquisition. But just what does Amazon want from this mega deal?
According to reports from Bloomberg, the Amazon Roomba deal is about getting as much information on your house as possible. With technology like Alexa, Amazon can learn everything about a person’s likes simply from listening. What does Roomba add?
In the report, Bloomberg explains that Amazon wants to be the ruler of the Smart Home industry. From Alexa to Smart Bulbs, the company wants to be the key component connecting everything in the home.
The move with Roomba is said to give Amazon the advantage of knowing your house. Using the robot vacuum, Amazon will be able to map your home and keep that map data for other purposes, such as selling you items it thinks your house needs.
Using Smart Maps technology, Amazon will have complex map data for every Roomba user’s home. But what exactly are the ramifications of this technology’s acquisition?
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A marketer’s dream
The report claims that Amazon’s Smart Maps data could be one of the biggest opportunities for marketers. In fact, the data for the inside of a home could be more valuable than you ever thought.
As the report states, map data can expose many details. For example, a larger house typically means more wealth to exploit. Barely any furniture means someone may need to buy some.
Amazon has currently stated that it will be protecting user data, including Smart Maps. However, that doesn’t mean that Amazon itself won’t be able to push suggestions to you based off the data it has on you.
Amazon’s current promise to never sell data may not hold true forever. (Judging from other tech companies these days, it may never be true.) Hopefully, when/if this data sale occurs, the tech giant will be held to account. Spoiler: It Won’t.