OPINION : Amazon buying the shaper of Roomba robot vacuum cleaner cleaners gives it mastery over a life-threatening volume of in - home information . Is it time for us to take fund and protect our most sacred spaces ?
If you own a few select product , Amazon knows an insane amount about what goes on in your family . Own anAmazon Echospeaker ? It can tune up into your every vocalization . Although it ’s “ not mind ” unless you say the backwash word , it can find out when you divulge wind . It can hear when you ’re being intimate with a partner . It screw what you like to listen to while have tog .
If you connect a few smart products to say loudspeaker system , it can make for out when you come and go , when you go to bed and when you awaken up for that morning coffee . Your Alexa - connected impertinent light bulb and your door locks give the game away . If you have aRing security system cameraor telecasting doorbell , that ’s now owned by Amazon , and it can see who come and goes .
Have aFire TVproduct ? Amazon screw what you watch . If you happen to shop at Whole Foods , Amazon knows whether you like to cook extra firm tofu or rib - eye steak to go with an instalment of The Boys . You get the idea , right ? That ’s a hatful of cartel you ’re place in a companionship that has a less - than - exemplary record in that esteem ( seehere , hereandhereto name but a few relative incidence we ’ve report on in recent years ) .
This has happened quite quickly and easily . A full on incursion into our private spaces , one smart gadget at a time , making our at make our lives easier and more expedient .
Sometimes you have to say it out loud to get your nous around it . Amazon ( and the eternal sleep of the big tech firm ) have bugged our homes – our most sanctified spaces – and we ’re ok with it because part control is commodious and still somewhat of a knickknack .
Sweeping it under the rug
The invasion just got a little more intense . Amazon has purchased iRobot , the firm behind the Roomba vacuity cleaners . So what ? You may think . Well , Roombas work successfully by creating an picture of the layout of your house , so it can obviate bang into thing .
So Congratulations , Roomba users , Amazon now has a blueprint of the inside of your theater . It knows if you could habituate a dining table , or a proper entertainment centre to supersede that crappy TV stall . It knows whether you sleep in a single or king - sized bed . Adding to the fact it potentially knows when you sleep ( Alexa lights on / off , threshold shut away / unlock control ) . If you bribe one of those dumbass Amazon Halo fitness bands , it have a go at it how you slept ( although not very effectively ) .
In isolation , Amazon buy iRobot is n’t the prominent deal in the world . However , it ’s the cumulative effect of all of this data that ’s so worthful to Amazon , as it continues a grand pursuit to become the only shop on Earth ( and beyond).Roomba users ’ data could by all odds serve Amazon sell even more smart home products . An Echo in every room ? An Eero span Wi - Fi router for that hard to reach nook ? Another Ring camera for the back K ? You get the thought . This push is n’t going away until every parole and ever inch of the home is account for and document on an AWS host .
Sleeping with the enemy
The Roomba purchase is also another lesson for us as consumer . If you get yourself enthrone in a Modern and exciting offset - up ecosystem , there ’s always a hazard your data will terminate up in the hands of big tech following an acquisition .
closed chain users have already been through what Roomba user are about to . For a more extreme example , talk to some Fitbit user about how they feel about years and years of intimate body data ( cycle tracking , nap , heart rate , practice session , you name it ) end up in Google ’s hands .
Is it time for administration to get involved here ? From my perspective , Big Tech should n’t have access to any of these users ’ data from the meter before the leverage takes place , unless yield explicit consent .
hoi polloi should be given the chance to prefer out . That means they can have a fresh kickoff elsewhere , safe in the cognition the most powerful corporation in the world do n’t have accession to intimate data they did not agree to reach over to a company that already knows too much .
