In the last few hours, Amazon has ended up at the center of a decidedly dangerous storm. Your customers’ privacy is at risk, that’s why.
From year to year, the turnover of the giant Amazon it has multiplied to become one of the tallest in the world today. If until recently we were all skeptical about online purchases, today it is part of our daily life.
Browse the online catalogues, choose, order, receive comfortably at home and then have the right to return it within a few days luxuries we are used to and which we would miss if they were missing. In the last few hours, however, Amazon is experiencing a real storm due to the protect the privacy of its customers: this is the product under the magnifying glass.
Amazon, privacy alarm for robot vacuum cleaners
The European Commission set its sights on the way in which Amazon protects (or not) the privacy of its customers, due to the robot iThe Roomba Robot which the giant allegedly bought in August 2022 for 1.7 billion dollars. At the moment, it seems that the European Commission has sent Amazon only a series of questions: normally, however, this is only the first step of an in-depth investigation.
There are basically two reasons for the investigation. The first concerns the free competition: there are fears that this purchase is an effort by Amazon to steal more and more ground from other retailers and there is a suspicion that it violates the rules of free competition. The second, however, concerns customer privacy: in fact, in January 2022, some photographs taken by vacuum cleaners robot.
In those days, the MIT Technology Review received fifteen screenshots taken by a vacuum cleaner and then published in closed Facebook groups: among these, there were also intimate images. Upon investigation, it turned out that vacuum cleaners take pictures and then they send them to a start up where employees label received data, teaching robots how to avoid obstacles, map the house and so on. The problem, however, is that these images came out of those offices and have become public knowledge.
Amazon, which acquired iRobots in August, he will then have to answer the questions of the European Commission. “We are working collaboratively with relevant regulators in their review of the mergera company spokesperson said.
