Privacy groups are concerned about Amazon’s acquisition of robot maker iRobot. They fear that the tech giant will use data collected by robot vacuum cleaners for personalized advertising, for example.
By Elisa HeisenAmazon announced last week that it wants to acquire the robot maker for 1.7 billion dollars (1.67 billion euros). The deal still needs to be approved by the FTC trade commission.
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iRobot became known to the general public in 2002 thanks to the household robot Roomba. The round vacuum cleaner, which sucks the floor without human intervention, sold a million copies two years after its introduction. Since then, iRobot has sold more than 30 million household robots.
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Now that the companies have announced the acquisition, privacy organizations are concerned about consumer privacy. They see this as a way for Amazon to store more and more data about their customers.
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Robot vacuum cleaners turn home into a map
The latest robot vacuum cleaners from iRobot use certain technology that allows them to remember the layout of rooms. The devices make a map of the house, as it were. This ensures, for example, that the device does not repeatedly hit furniture.
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The technology ensures that the homes of users are mapped in detail. That is what worries the experts. Amazon will probably soon receive detailed information about the homes of its consumers, so that it can, for example, offer personalized advertisements.
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