Amazon acquires Roomba: iRobot CEO says they will never sell your data

Colin Angle, iRobot CEO

Image: iRobot

Editor's Note, August 8, 2022: Back in 2017, we conducted an exclusive interview with iRobot's CEO Colin Angle about Roomba privacy issues. Last week, Amazon announced its acquisition of iRobot, which sparked Roomba privacy questions anew. We reached out to Angle to confirm whether iRobot's privacy policy will remain unchanged, but the company hasn't yet responded. In the meantime, here's our 2017 interview. We'll update when we receive a reply from iRobot.

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It started with an interview in Reuters, in which the company's chief executive Colin Angle gave a clear impression that iRobot was selling consumers' home mapping data. We picked up the story and covered it here on ZDNet. In a column published on Wednesday, I looked at the security implications and wrote an open letter to Angle about my concerns.

Last night, Angle and iRobot got back to me on this issue. They provided the following response to the concerns I and others shared.

In response:

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.

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