Amazon’s $1.7 billion (A$2.4 billion) acquisition deal for iRobot, the creator of Roomba robot vacuums, will give the e-commerce giant another avenue to collect personal information if nothing is done to protect it, Digital Rights Watch warned.
On Friday, both companies announced they had entered into a definitive merger in an all-cash transaction.
Digital Rights Watch, a non-profit advocacy group, noted that the acquisition comes shortly after Amazon purchased health care company One Medical in July, which would allow the incorporation of health data into its existing artificial intelligence products such as Alexa.
Roombas have a function that collects, creates, and uploads detailed maps of people’s homes, allowing extra functions such as only cleaning a specific room….