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 Ever get the sensation that someone is staring at you as you mindlessly watch television or cook dinner? Is the feeling sometimes so intense that you immediately stop what you are doing and quickly scan the room for possible intruders? If you own a Roomba, chances are good that that feeling of being watched may not be imagined after all….
In fact, that Roomba may be doing some heavy recon while roaming around your house—all under the guise of cleaning it.
According to recent reports, iRobot, the maker of Roomba, wants to quite literally sell the "dirt" it gathers about your home to the highest bidder.
Equipped with sensors, cameras and software, iRobot believes that the spatial mapping information Roomba collects while navigating your home will be linked in the future to information collected from other home devices such as the Amazon Echo and smart thermostats. Linking these devices could enable companies like Amazon or Apple to sell products to a customer based on the layout of that customer’s home.
"There’s an entire ecosystem of things and services that the smart home can deliver once you have a rich map of the home that the user has allowed to be shared," Colin Angle, CEO of iRobot Corp., told Reuters.
However, with concerns for consumer privacy making headlines, iRobot assures that the decision will be up to the consumer and they can opt out of having their information sold.
Would you opt out of having your floor plans available to companies like Apple or Amazon or would you welcome a customized consumer experience?
Image credit:
Tibor Antalóczy / CC BY-SA 3.0
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Re: You Aren't Paranoid! You ARE Being Watched!
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