Don’t Worry, iRobot Isn’t Planning To Sell The Data Your Roomba Collects

iRobot found itself the center of controversy following a report saying the company had plans to sell users' Roomba home mapping information, and a poorly worded statement from the company in response. According to Tech Crunch, iRobot CEO Colin Angle responded to a request for clarification on the issue by saying, "iRobot has not formed any plans to sell the data."

However, some users worried that statement could mean that selling the data was not in the plans yet, but could be in the future. So on Friday, the company issued a more direct statement to ZDNET, saying, "iRobot will never sell your data."

The statement continued, "Information that is shared needs to be controlled by the customer and not as a data asset of a corporation to exploit. That is how data is handled by iRobot today. Customers have control over sharing it. I want to make very clear that this is how data will be handled in the future."

For sharing information between devices, the statement clarifies that it will always require users' permission, and the connections between devices will remain secure.

That is reassuring for anyone using Roomba to pick up after them and keep their floors clean. The idea that a company could see home mapping information is rightfully scary, and a major home security concern. It's good to know that iRobot is not doing that now, and has no plans to ever do it in the future.

Roombas are way too convenient to have to give up over worries that they could be used to help someone rob or case your home. It's reassuring to know I can look forward to purchasing my own vacuuming robot to take care of all the cat hair and kid crumbs that cover my floors, and hope that it doesn't roll through poop in the process.