> Who really cares if this company collects and/or sells mapping data of our floors?
Me. And not to put too fine a point on it, the people in the market for buying and selling this data.
> Why should I be worried if Amazon knows the distance between my couch and coffee table?
I'm not going to presume to speak for you.
> Isn't our outrage better preserved for when our privacy is truly invaded?
...So don't speak for me when deciding what is an isn't an invasion of privacy.
I find this to be a significant invasion, and so do many other folks, some of whom are giving you possible answers to your question. In a lot of ways, this is no different than people claiming the FB 'true name' policy doesn't matter/is actually a positive. Maybe for them, but not for the former partner of an abusive spouse, or the gay kid in Russia or Alabama.
Don't presume that your tolerance for data leakage is the same as everyone else's.
More generally, the point is that information like this just should be default-private. There is zero reason for me to want information like this to be shared with random third-parties. If iRobot or whomever wants to "enhance the value of their connected devices" with private data about me and/or my possessions, let them approach me and convince me to share it, not just blandly write some bullshit privacy policy and take it from a device I purchased.
I love innovation, new toys, etc. But this rush to sneakily inventory/quantify/spy on me, my home, possessions and relations is awful, and will have creepy outcomes. It won't happen to me, because I won't install this shit in my home or use social media, but it will happen.
Do what you like with your own sense of privacy, but don't presume to speak for anyone else about what a "true invasion" might be.
Hey jal, just to let you know the iRobot privacy policy and device data collection and retention policy does state that data will not be shared, divulged or sold to any third party without your express informed consent on a case by case basis, and that data is not even collected by them unless you opt-in and register your robot with them. The bots are fully functional as a standalone device without internet connectivity. Additionally you can contact them at any time to have your private data removed from their servers which they are happy to do.
Full disclosure: I am a former iRobot engineer, and also a big privacy proponent. I also had some feelings about a camera enabled mapping robot when I first learned about the project, but I can tell you that the people there take privacy and data security VERY seriously, and really are trying to respect their customers as much as possible. Unfortunatley the message that iRobot wanted to allow you to share your mapping data if you wanted to for enabling smart home applications got spun pretty quickly into "iRobot wants to sell your data!")
>In a lot of ways, this is no different than people claiming the FB 'true name' policy doesn't matter/is actually a positive. Maybe for them, but not for the former partner of an abusive spouse, or the gay kid in Russia or Alabama.
This is exactly what I am talking about. Do you honestly see no hyperbole in this? Roomba having a map of my floors is no different than a policy that leads to gay kids in Russia being thrown in jail. Things aren't binary. We can deal with them in nuance. Equating these two together weakens your argument against both of them.
This is exactly what I am talking about. Do you honestly see no hyperbole in this? Roomba having a map of my floors is no different than a policy that leads to gay kids in Russia being thrown in jail. Things aren't binary. We can deal with them in nuance. Equating these two together weakens your argument against both of them.
When it comes to Big Data -- and Big Metadata, for that matter -- quantity has a quality all its own. If this type of data weren't valuable, and hence worth safeguarding, there would be no market for it.
I'd like to agree with you, but I'm becoming less sure of that with every day.
For instance, you breezed right past my point (that privacy risks are different for different people) to hammer more on your presumptuous assertion that floor maps don't (or maybe you mean shouldn't) matter to anyone.
Sure, and as someone who owns an older model, this feature (as I'm learning about it today) actually sounds compelling for my particular use case. But I also put covers/tape over my webcams. So sure, privacy concerns are all relative.
However, in this case, I still cannot understand all the negativity still being directed toward iRobot. We know data they're collecting, we know why they're collecting it, and uploading mapping data is opt-in. If any of these things concerns you, can you just not buy it and move on?
If my ranting concerns you, can you just not ignore it and move on? I just can't understand the negativity...
More seriously, I see value in iRobot and others hearing loud noise about how stuff like this is not OK to many of us.
- "We" may know this, but I doubt there's a "we also sell your data" sticker on the box, and lots of other people don't.
- If people don't push back, manufacturers will hear that this is acceptable. I'd like this to not be acceptable.
- iRobot may have floated this in order to find out what people thought, but many other companies are much less scrupulous. They need to hear loud and clear that this is not acceptable.
- If loud outcries happen each time some company tries to normalize data grabs like this, they won't be normalized. That's a world I'd like to live in, so I'll keep being loud, thanks.
Me. And not to put too fine a point on it, the people in the market for buying and selling this data.
> Why should I be worried if Amazon knows the distance between my couch and coffee table?
I'm not going to presume to speak for you.
> Isn't our outrage better preserved for when our privacy is truly invaded?
...So don't speak for me when deciding what is an isn't an invasion of privacy.
I find this to be a significant invasion, and so do many other folks, some of whom are giving you possible answers to your question. In a lot of ways, this is no different than people claiming the FB 'true name' policy doesn't matter/is actually a positive. Maybe for them, but not for the former partner of an abusive spouse, or the gay kid in Russia or Alabama.
Don't presume that your tolerance for data leakage is the same as everyone else's.
More generally, the point is that information like this just should be default-private. There is zero reason for me to want information like this to be shared with random third-parties. If iRobot or whomever wants to "enhance the value of their connected devices" with private data about me and/or my possessions, let them approach me and convince me to share it, not just blandly write some bullshit privacy policy and take it from a device I purchased.
I love innovation, new toys, etc. But this rush to sneakily inventory/quantify/spy on me, my home, possessions and relations is awful, and will have creepy outcomes. It won't happen to me, because I won't install this shit in my home or use social media, but it will happen.
Do what you like with your own sense of privacy, but don't presume to speak for anyone else about what a "true invasion" might be.