Amazon's Roomba acquisition gets caught on FTC's rug

America's Federal Trade Commission is investigating Amazon's proposed acquisition of iRobot, the Roomba robot vacuum cleaner maker, and has asked for more information about the deal from the technology pair. Amazon announced plans to absorb iRobot last month in an all-cash deal worth $1.7 billion. The acquisition isn't …

[Kevin McMurtrie]

Scamazon

Amazon and Google seem to be open to hosting criminal scammers far more so than in the past. Not just the usual hit-n-run types, but highly integrated networks of SMS spammers, clickthrough trackers, aggregation analyzers, disposable hosts, and credit card recorders. They've both received nearly three digits of complaints against the core components at domain-safety.com, www.scite.site, cotrcker.org, create.leadid.com, and we-buy-homes4cash.com. After that it quickly branches into a seemingly infinite network of bot-generated fake web sites claiming to offer professional services, gift cards, performance enhancing drugs, and amazing gadgets in exchange for personal information and credit cards. Crims aren't even hiding behind Cloudflare anymore.

If you think counterfeit products and storefronts on Amazon marketplace are bad, wait until you've experienced their AWS customers. Any corporate acquisition that seems to offer Amazon no value but access to extremely sensitive personal data should be considered dangerous.

BTW, some trackers in the network are totally open to harvesting. Change the phone number in the URL parameter and away you go.

[NoneSuch]

Re: Scamazon

Before you buy an iRobot device, try to download their Google / Apple app that controls the unit. They geolock a lot of countries making that app unavailable in many regions. No reference to that on their website and if you are geolocked don't expect support.

A rake in the face after spending $1,000+ and finding you can't download the app that controls it. Caveat emptor.

[dieseltaylor]

Roomba make very good machines and would continue to be a viable business.

The idea that in Amazon's hands it would be better for consumers in any way seems to me to be a case of hope over experience.

[Anonymous Coward]

Presumably, new Amazon features will include:

- Microphone, all the better to hear you with;

- Camera; all the better to see you with;

- Wireless connectivity, to phone home with all the accumulated Stasi payload.

[J. Cook]

Re: Presumably, new Amazon features will include:

Well, amazon does like integrating Alexa with everything...

[anonymous boring coward]

At least 1984 will have very clean floors.

[Stephen Wilkinson]

if the robot hasn't got stuck under something!

[Anonymous Coward]

Thank you for that title

.. and the sub.

Wonderful :)

[Cliffwilliams44]

You know they are full of SH!T when they say stuff like this.

"Far from being neutral pieces of computer code, these algorithms, when paired with Amazon's world-wide impact, exacerbate racist and gender-biased systems of oppression."

For Christ sake, give it a rest!

So the vacuum cleaned up an exorbitant amount of Cheetos from your floor and now Amazon wants to sell you more Cheetos and that's racist or gender-biased?

No, these peoples brains are stuck in a perpetual stupid loop!

[YetAnotherXyzzy]

Re: You know they are full of SH!T when they say stuff like this.

What's really sad is that Amazon et. al do indeed do nasty things that need to be called out, but legitimate concerns get shrugged off because of over the top hyperbole like this. Hey Fight for the Future, I'm sure you mean well but stuff like this does more harm than good.

[aerogems]

Vindication

I remember back when robot vacuums were still a new thing and it came out that they would create and store a map of rooms. People asked me what possible use that info could be if the company were to try to flog it to some kind of broker.

Well, now we have a great example of how that info could be abused. Pretty soon you’ll get spamvertisments from Amazon along the lines of, “We notice you have this open space in your house. Here’s a great end table that would fit in that location!”

[LoPath]

Re: Vindication

Better yet... we see that your house looks like utter shite! How about we set you up with a subscription to Don's Dumpster Service and Merry Maids?

[martinusher]

If you don't want it to know "the most intimate secrets" of your home....

....then you know what to do. Don't buy the thing. There's no law that says you've got to use one and as turns out a human Roomba does a much better job (and actually knows an intimate secret when he/she sees one).

I trust Amazon merely because they already know so much about us and our purchasing habits that any more data is superfluous and, anyway, they're not going to sell that data to all comers -- competitors. They also know that if they abuse what they know then their customer base could evaporate. This type of enlightened self-interest is the only reliable indicator of corporate behavior, everything else is inviting a workaround.

[crayon]

Re: If you don't want it to know "the most intimate secrets" of your home....

'This type of enlightened self-interest is the only reliable indicator of corporate behavior,"

Are there any examples of companies exhibiting this "enlightened self-interest" behaviour?

[bazza]

Wrong Metaphor in Headline

Instead of saying that the deal has got stuck on a rug, could have uses the one about a Roomba running over a dog turd and spreading shit all over the place...

[herman]

Windows

Real windows that is. I need a robot window cleaner that really works!