Roomba Privacy Invasion? iRobot CEO Vows Never To Sell Customer Data
After reports earlier this week that iRobot would sell data gathered about a user’s home from Roomba vacuums, company CEO Colin Angle insists that iRobot will “never” sell customer data, ZDNet reported.
The promise is in stark contrast to what Angle appeared to suggest earlier in the week in an interview with Reuters during which the executive said the company could use mapping data gathered by its robotic vacuums and sell them to companies looking to gain insight about how people use smart home devices.
Read: Are Smart Home Devices Safe? Indoor Mapping Data Collection Poses Privacy Risk
"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," Angle told Reuters on Monday, though he did suggest such a data sharing program would require a user to opt in.
In a statement to ZDNet, Angle walked back that plan. “First things first, iRobot will never sell your data. Our mission is to help you keep a cleaner home and, in time, to help the smart home and the devices in it work better,” he wrote.
The company also clarified that it has not engaged in any conversations with other companies about potential data transactions and is not looking to sell mapping information or other customer data. The reading of Angle’s statement was a “misinterpretation,” according to the company.
Angle also insisted that the user will always be in control of data gathered by iRobot devices. “That is how data is handled by iRobot today. Customers have control over sharing it,” Angle said. “I want to make very clear that this is how data will be handled in the future.”
Read: iRobot Unveils Cat-Proof Roomba 980 With Adaptive Navigation And Cloud Connectivity
While Angle and his company held firm in its belief that customers should always be in control of their data, they also made note that the future of the connected home would count on shared data and users will likely have the option to share information from their Roombas with other devices.
“You may also want your robot to work with other connected devices in your home. For this to work, we will also require your permission, and we will always ensure secure means of communication between devices,” Angle wrote.
The company also took the opportunity to clarify how its current vacuuming robots store data gathered from a person’s home. According to the company, its Roomba 900 series vacuums capture mapping and navigation information and store in on the robot.
On Roombas that are Wi-Fi enabled, usage data can be sent to the cloud and viewed on the iRobot Home App on the user’s mobile device. That information includes how long the robot cleaned for, how far it, if it encountered any errors and if it functioned correctly.
Images taken for navigation purposes are not stored in the cloud, though can be made viewable via the mobile device if the user agrees to share that information.
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