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Amazon’s Buying iRobot, Who Collects Maps of Your House

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An Amazon Echo with a dark background an ominous feel

Amazon’s Alexa was bade enough…

In 2018, Amazon acquired Ring. Ring makes the 21st century doorbell, complete with a camera and speaker function, so you can see who’s at your door at any time. Amazon’s Ring was recently in some hot water for giving video from customers’ Ring doorbells to the police without a warrant and without notifying the owner or requiring their permission. This reportedly happened in at least 11 cases in 2022 so far.

In 2017, CEO of iRobot, Colin Angle, touted the data sharing capabilities that iRobot could build thanks to building out a detailed map of the inside of people’s homes. Their Roomba automatic vacuum cleaner was perfect for the task. “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,” he said in an interview with Reuters. In the same interview, he said the company would work to sell that data in the future.

 

In 2022, Amazon paid $1.7 billion for iRobot.

 

Now the company will have access to your house itself. Where your furniture is. What your floor space is like. Whether or not your living room could totally use a rug to bring the whole room together. The company looking to sell you everything just got a list of items you may need.

And you may not be the only person they share that data with.

The Roomba Storefront

In the past, when Amazon would buy a company, the obvious reason would the data they’re already collecting. Amazon looks at which products are popular on their website. They see what consumers are buying, and from where. According to retailers who use Amazon, Amazon will then either sell similar products, make nearly identical copies to sell, or simply buy out the retailer. It’s an issue retailers have called out, and is a symptom of Amazon’s extremely large monopoly. Due to the power of that monopoly, they get away with these alleged infringements and unethical use of data.

Amazon could also want iRobot, creator of the Roomba vacuum cleaner, to create a complete home automation solution. Amazon has been making moves into people’s homes with Echo devices and the Ring camera. However, all of that makes a lot less sense when you realize iRobot has been collecting user data and, in it’s most recent Roomba, added a camera with AI-based object detection capabilities.

The Privacy Nightmare

In the Issac Asimov story, I, Robot, robots were governed by the three (eventually four) laws of robots. These were meant to protect humans from the potentially dangerous robots in their homes and in every aspect of their lives. But actual companies don’t have to follow such narrow laws. In real life, profit is the only true law. That certainly applies to data collection and the use of mountains of data companies have on consumers.

Amazon has already found themself under scrutiny for another privacy violation: Ring cameras. Amazon acquired Ring a few years ago, and since then has made questionable policy decisions. For example, police can already request video from anyone’s Ring camera with just a short two-page form and the claim that it’s an “emergency.” They need no judge, no warrant, and, even after Amazon gives them the footage, police don’t even have to prove to anyone they actually needed the video. There’s zero oversight, and Ring customers can’t opt out. They never get a say in this video collection. Without oversight or customer permission, police will abuse the system. There’s absolutely no reason for them not to.

This isn’t even the first time Amazon had an uncomfortable relationship with police. According to the LAPD, an ongoing investigation is looking into whether or not Amazon’s Ring potentially bribed officers to use their credibility to get Ring in other homes. In one department, over 60 officers got over $10,000 worth of equipment from Amazon thanks to a referral program. People will believe an officer who tells them to buy a Ring system for their home to make them safe. After that, officers know that any of that video is theirs and they can get a free or discounted camera in their own home.

Kicking the Door In

No-knock raids have become a large problem across America. Police barge in, unannounced and violently. Often, people are shot, injured, or killed. It was a no-knock raid that killed Breonna Taylor. Another killed a 14-year old child in his home. In both cases, the suspect wasn’t even there. Hateful people online have even begun using police as their own personal hit squad. They’ll send falsified information to police, making it seem like the person in a house has hostages, is armed, and has already hurt people. They may even pose as the person themselves. Police then kick the door down and act rashly, instead of observing the fact that it was an obvious false report. This has lead to police either killing or arresting the victim in most circumstances.

What happens when police also have a blueprint of your home? Will they be sure to avoid areas that could be children’s bedrooms? Or will they see bedrooms as the most likely entry point? Will they be more willing to attack with force, knowing they have the advantage? Will knowing everything about the inside of your home make them more lethal, or safer? The truth is, potentially both. It can only make the situations more extreme.

Stalking Everywhere

Multiple women have reported police stalkers, and the results are always horrifying. Police stealing photos off of a woman’s phone, tracking her whereabouts too. They have access to cameras in public already. However, many of these require more observable actions. An arrest, a request for certain cameras, equipment for tracking a person’s car, etc. All of it has a paper trail that judges and departments can look into. But how easy is it for an officer to get video outside of someone’s home for an “emergency?” How easy will it be to get footage from the inside from the same company? Is this really an area where it’s safe to have no judicial oversight?

A Perpetual Eye Inside

The Roomba j7, it’s latest flagship model, has a camera. Not only does it map the inside of your house by rolling around it, it also observes the items in your house. A table here, a bed there. Amazon can of course use this data to sell something to you. They also get a camera that can identify people and is on, all the time, and mobile in your house. It’s like covering your entire home in cameras for Amazon to peek in. Even if you’re fine with police officers having no oversight for their actions, potentially getting video from inside and outside of your house, surely you don’t want a corporation also holding that footage at all times? Hacks happen, stalkers at companies exist, and perverts are everywhere. A company that has been lax with your privacy already isn’t one you want to have cameras all over your home, inside and outside, is it?

Amazon has tried to get an eye in before. A $999 robot, Astro, is supposed to be a cute “surveillance and helper robot.” However, internal documents show it wasn’t effective for helping people in your home, or navigating your home. In fact, about all it was actually for was tracking you. It could follow people to see where in the house they go. Along with that, Amazon could map out floor plans, collecting data about the inside of people’s homes. Astro hasn’t been popular, but Roomba? iRobot’s robot vacuum cleaner is so ubiquitous the product name is synonymous with “robot vacuum cleaner.” It’s already in millions of homes worldwide. Amazon didn’t need to invent a product that people wanted to buy to get in your home. They just needed to buy the company that was already inside.

Inside, Out, and Beyond

With Amazon’s iRobot acquisition, the company now has a good look both inside your home and outside of it. It’s a privacy nightmare for a company obsessed with collecting people’s data. But it’s fine. These are products you or others have to want and then buy to invite Amazon in. It’s not as though they also bought a healthcare company people may be forced to have under America’s broken healthcare system, right?

Oh. Oh no.

Amazon has spent billions in just the past month gobbling up companies that own consumer data, all while owning the biggest point of failure for the entire internet, AWS. At some point, “To big to fail” becomes more than a sad justification for a government bailout. At some point it becomes an unavoidable institution more entrenched in consumers’ lives than their government, employer, or even their friends and family. Amazon isn’t just in your home. It’s everywhere. It’s in your neighborhood, your home, and even in your doctor’s office.

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