privacy iRobot wants to sell your floor plan data to Amazon, Apple or Facebook

[Misanthrope]

7 hours ago, ARikozuM said:

I don't really see why knowing the floor plan of a house is a big deal when you can get the records from your local office.

Since the robot needs to know all of the furniture to navigate around it probably has a lot more info than just the floor plan and probably could sell that info as well while being far less forthcoming about it.

[ARikozuM]

Just now, Misanthrope said:

Since the robot needs to know all of the furniture to navigate around it probably has a lot more info than just the floor plan and probably could sell that info as well while being far less forthcoming about it.

I still don't see the issue. I'm just one of the however many people who have a bedroom with a bed, a living room with a couch and cabinet, and a kitchen with a sink. If Amazon or Google really wanted the floor plans they could just walk into the municipal office and get them.

[Misanthrope]

Just now, ARikozuM said:

I still don't see the issue. I'm just one of the however many people who have a bedroom with a bed, a living room with a couch and cabinet, and a kitchen with a sink. If Amazon or Google really wanted the floor plans they could just walk into the municipal office and get them.

But what if the robot reveals the location and floor plan of your secret dungeon you use for totally legit and legal reasons?

 

Remember we can never know what the literal vampire pot-bellied goblins at the Illuminati would do with such info!

[Granular]

Inb4 next generation of Roombas has high definition cameras and microphones "for voice and gesture control".

[Granular]

On 7/25/2017 at 9:32 AM, Bcat00 said:

Oh for goodness sake, take all my data and put a GPS on me because i like tech and advancements.

The future is tailoring everything to each individual person, deal with it, live with it, don't like it?

The problem doesn't arise from Roombas mapping the homes.

It arises when Roombas send that data to iRobot and they then sell it.

Even with the data being sent to their servers, iRobot could have made the system zero-knowledge on their part, like an end-to-end encrypted messanger, but they chose not to because they're greedy scum.

[Mornincupofhate]

Just wrap your irobot in tin foil. No signals are getting out of that thing.

[Drak3]

On 7/25/2017 at 0:01 AM, ARikozuM said:

I don't really see why knowing the floor plan of a house is a big deal when you can get the records from your local office.

On 7/25/2017 at 7:12 AM, goodtofufriday said:

Your floor plans are already public record. Why is this any sort of concern.

Assuming I didn't remodel my house without submitting new floor plans. Extremely stupid. Also something businesses do rather frequently.

 

And floor plans don't always work out to matching the real thing.

[SpaceGhostC2C]

How can they collect this data anyway?

Do you mean the Roomba is connecting to the internet? Why does your vacuum cleaner connect to the internet?

 

I understand how Google turns your usage of their online services into data they can sell. I don't understand how using something that never needs to connect to anything outside your hose can turn into profitable data. And if they just build in an internet connection because they can, don't use it. And if they require internet connection for the vacuum cleaner to work, just don't buy it. I mean, it's as stupid as giving your flashlight app permission to everything in your phone.

 

It goes beyond privacy concerns: whether you care about sharing your floor plan with iRobot or not, next thing you know your cleaning robot is getting hacked and joining a botnet or worse as the rest of "IoT" stupidity. All for no benefit.

 

 

[SpaceGhostC2C]

On 7/25/2017 at 8:01 AM, ARikozuM said:

I don't really see why knowing the floor plan of a house is a big deal when you can get the records from your local office.

 

On 7/25/2017 at 3:12 PM, goodtofufriday said:

Your floor plans are already public record. Why is this any sort of concern.

 

The only thing that you can find in public records are empty floor plans. iRobot will know not just the dimensions and distribution of your rooms, but also how you actually use them, since their robot has to deal with all obstacles in the house, not just the walls. Which furniture you have and how you place it is not public information. And I'm sure they can infer many things about you relevant for marketing in that way (like whether that second room is a children's room in a family, or it is the office space of a single adult or a kid-less couple).

[SpaceGhostC2C]

On 7/25/2017 at 8:32 AM, Bcat00 said:

Oh for goodness sake, take all my data and put a GPS on me because i like tech and advancements.

The future is tailoring everything to each individual person, deal with it, live with it, don't like it?

 

NO PROBLEM, GO LIVE IN THE FOREST LIKE WILD ANIMALS OR THE HIPPIES FOR ALL WE CARE

The future can be whatever we choose to make of it. No, we don't have to choose between living in the world you desire or living like wild animals. We can actually choose a different alternative as well. And whether you like it or not, we may swing things our way in time. The future is in the making. You are in no position to make take-it-or-leave-it offers to society. You may like things like this, others may dislike them. How things turn out is yet to be seen.

 

Of course, having a mass of passive idiots accepting whatever garbage is thrown at them under the excuse of no alternative would help a great deal in shaping the future in a particular way.

[CoolMarquis97]

In what way would this help the vacuum?