The acquisition of iRobot by Amazon is currently the most talked about deal. Even though Amazon could make Roombas better, the majority of people are worried about privacy and competition. If you are already paranoid about the speakers listening in on your conversation, the Roomba-maker's acquisition should make you even more paranoid.
There is a rough idea of where we are currently in our relationship with the omnicorporation. Amazon knows your house's floor plan with the millions of Roomba vacuum cleaners that will fall into its network.
There is too much personal information in the hands of a corporate entity and one with a not-so-stellar track record with privacy. What is it that Amazon wants to do with its acquisition of iRobot, and what are the consequences for customers like you and me?
It looks like iRobot's acquisition will give Amazon a pre-cooked lunch of robot vacuum cleaner assets that it can serve to customers via its global e- commerce platform. It is possible that some advanced capabilities can be locked to Prime in a few years. We live in a world where BMW wants you to pay for heated seats on a monthly basis.
It is true that iRobot gives a portfolio of solid hardware, talent, supply chain reach, and manufacturing capabilities to Amazon, but the e- commerce giant is no stranger to the robotics game, especially those that look like a disk-shaped robotic vacuum cleaner. Proteus, an autonomously warehouse robot, was showcased by Amazon over a month ago.
According to an analysis from Allied Market Research, Amazon is one of the top players in both the cloud and warehouse robotics segments. The observation was made in a Research And Markets report. Technavio ranked Amazon as one of the top dogs in the consumer robot market.
The Massachusetts facility that Amazon established last year is 30 miles away from iRobot's own headquarters. The division is also looking to hire. Amazon is setting up a center in India. According to a news outlet, Ken Washington, Vice President of Consumer Robotics at Amazon said, "This new consumer robotics software development center will help support our growing consumer robotic division."
In the past few quarters, it has become clear that the company is serious about making robot-assisted living a reality. Amazon has all the resources in the world to do that, and iRobot sounds like a natural target for Amazon to steal as it wants more space in your personal life.
Amazon ads are all about ad targeting. It can show more personalized product ads if it gets more data. Amazon can access the floor plan of your house with the camera-equipped Roomba cleaners. The sofa is missing. What's the size of your kitchen? There is a nursery. You understand the concept.
One way to look at the deal, if you were to believe every word Amazon has to say, is that Roomba will make your smart home life a little less frustrating, now that they are a part of Amazon's system. Even if you try to look at this in a positive way, the reality is not good.
Smart Maps is a feature in iRobot Roombas that creates a map of the entire house. This data can be used to serve targeted product ads.
Sorry if this seems overly alarmist but it does make me pause given how much modern Roomba competitors actually know about your house! The new Roborock vacuums can recognize furniture and even stuff you leave on the ground! I really wouldn’t want Amazon knowing that? pic.twitter.com/eWQf2YWaMj
— Owen Williams ⚡ (@ow) August 5, 2022
If the Smart Map shows a few pots on your balcony, you could soon see ads for seeds,fertilizer, and watering cans on Amazon. If your living room looks empty, it might be a good idea to have some furniture in it.
All that data could end up in the hands of shady marketing and advertising companies. The Cambridge Analytica data-harvesting scandal has stained Facebook's reputation and exploded into its face. The extent of how the Facebook users' data was sold in the wild was barely comprehended by any industrial research body.
What if the data collected by your robot vacuum cleaner is used to advertise? It would still be convenient for a third party to deduce a person's wealth even if it's not a real-life depiction of your living room.
Advertising hell starts to break loose at that point. It's not clear where it all ends, from pushing an ad for an armchair to a credit card call from a company.
There was a hint that was dropped from iRobot's head a few years ago, but it was later corrected. According to the report, iRobot could reach a deal to share its maps for free with customer consent to one or more of the Big Three.
Soon, that data will be in the hands of Amazon. Even though Colin Angle will remain as the CEO of the iRobot division at Amazon, it is not hard to imagine that he will have to share more data with Amazon in the future.
Let's take a look at iRobot's privacy policy page. I will place it here instead of breaking it down.
Customers can share data with third-parties for their benefit if they so choose. The last part is difficult and often turns out to be a bait and switch mechanism.
Data won't be shared without customer consent. When was the last time you read through the privacy policy? I don't know anyone in my circle who ever bothered to go through the terms and conditions when setting up a device.
If I give my aunt a Roomba on her 50th birthday, she won't be interested in iRobot's data-sharing policy. The lengthy and complicated wording of the terms-and-conditions documents has evaded my attention even as a tech reporter with nearly half a decade of experience in testing consumer electronics and appliances. The privacy policy page of Amazon is no different.
These concerns are real.
James Thomson, who was the business head of Amazon Services in the past, said that they are a data company. Over the years, multiple investigative journalists and privacy advocates have been left bewildered by the amount of personal data Amazon collects on each of its users.
Amazon has everything you need to know about you, from audio recordings to music listening habits and which cereals you like. The data collected by Amazon can be used to build a personal profile for law enforcement agencies.
There is disappointment if you are hoping that the data is handled securely. The company's own security team has no idea how the data was flowing, according to internal documents reviewed by Wired.
Amazon sent recordings of a user to someone else.
From employees snooping on customers to selling data to shady sellers, the report paints a grim picture. It wasn't the first time that Amazon's services have been caught in the eye of a privacy storm
According to three former high-level information security employees, Amazon has little idea of the data at its disposal, and the security measures are an open invitation for hackers to break and steal personal data belonging to millions of users. According to research from North Carolina State University, there are a lot of privacy loopholes associated with Amazon's voice assistant. Amazon sent recordings of a user to someone else. Audio data was sent to a random contact from the victim's phone book.
Ring and its security cameras come next. Law enforcement agencies can ask for camera footage that is up to 45 days old, according to Amazon. According to police emails, Amazon is training law enforcement on how to encourage Ring camera owners to share video recordings. The Financial Times reported over a year ago that Amazon was partnering with over 2,000 police and fire departments.
Eero is one of the biggest names in the mesh wi-fi market. The deal would eventually allow customers to connect smart home devices. Adding your robot vacuum cleaner to that list is easy.
Amazon's acquisition of One Medical has set alarm bells ringing in the industry. It was on the wall for a while. Amazon grabbed a piece of the online pharmacy market with the acquisition of Pillpack. The company revealed the Halo fitness band, which goes beyond typical fitness bands by analyzing aspects like positivity, energy, and tone of your voice, as well as body fat measurement using pictures of you in your undies.
Amazon will be able to gain insight into your medical history, your favorite doctor, and more with One Medical. It's not easy to expect Amazon to act in good faith with your most personal health data. The iRobot acquisition makes the future prospects sound even more frightening.
If you can't afford a fancy Roomba with automated computer vision mapping, what are you going to do? Maybe you avoided a privacy nightmare because you didn't have a lot of money. If Amazon wanted to sell you a Roomba at half the price because you are a Prime member, what would you do? It's possible that it will be difficult to pass up.
The price constraint stops making it hard for you. There are other ways in which Amazon can put more Roombas into users homes. Amazon is not a good example of fair play. From shamelessly copying rival products and selling them under its own in-house brands at lower prices to exclusionary benefits, there is a rich anti-competitive history here.
With the Roomba brand under its belt, it's possible that Amazon will keep selling the same robot with the same label and high asking price, but put all that tech into a cheaper alternative sold under a private label. Over 100 private label brands sell everything from electronics to cheap t-shirts. Adding a robot vacuum cleaner makes sense. A segment that is expected to reach the $13 billion market cap by the end of this decade is too hard to ignore.
If Amazon ever wanted to sell a consumer robot, it already had its biggest competitor out of the way. If the Astro robot is any indication, Amazon is serious about selling robot homes. Anti-competitive scrutiny goes down a notch with one less competitor.
iRobot acquired Aeris back in 2021. It appears that Amazon will know when to put a filter refill ad in your product recommendations.
Big Tech has a long history of buying upstarts and competitors if their own copycats fail to get traction. iRobot was the leader in the robotic vacuum cleaner segment.
Over 40 million vacuum cleaners have been sold by iRobot to date. According to an analysis by Future Market Insights, the global market for robot vacuum cleaners was expected to reach $3.5 billion by the end of 2021.
Amazon went for the top player in the robot vacuum market. It is not a one-way road. iRobot is in a better place to develop new products because of Amazon.
One area where Amazon has a lot of expertise is in research and development. Amazon will make it possible for Roombas to whir into the homes of people around the globe. It is a strategic move that will revive the fortunes of iRobot and serve the dominance of the robot vacuum cleaner market to Amazon.
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