7 ms·

After reading about the house mapping of some robotic vacuum cleaners I'm hesitant to let one into my home.

by endgame 9y ago

chaosite 9y ago
... Why? What's so confidential about your floor plan?
- taneq 9y ago
  Ah, the good ol' "if you have nothing to hide" stance.
- Washuu 9y ago
  More that iRobot disclosed plans to sell the floor plans to the homes of their product users without telling them. https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/nation-now/2017/07/25/roomba-plans-sell-maps-users-homes/508578001/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/nation-now/2017/07/25/ro... I do not count a clause buried in a terms of service as informed consent.
  - valesco 9y ago
    4% of global revenue under the upcoming GDPR. Can't wait.
    - ancarda 9y ago
      rubs hands together I really can't wait for GDPR
  - pluma 9y ago
    > I do not count a clause buried in a terms of service as informed consent. Neither do EU courts. I guess this "feature" is only available in the US?
- ancarda 9y ago
  Could you send me a detailed copy of your floor plan? Ideally, SVG? Thanks! Oh, and anything else the robot sends too, like your IP address and maybe GPS coordinates? If you're willing to send, great -- thank you. I'd love to know, for undisclosed reasons. My email is in my profile, and you can even encrypt the files you send me using PGP. Although note that I'll be putting it on my Azure account and leaving it there for eternity. If you're not willing to send me that, then please don't even try the "you've got nothing to hide" line, because you clearly do! I'm going to start challenging this every time I hear this excuse because it's demonstrably nonsense when challenged. You won't send me that SVG because you know I have no fucking business knowing what your house looks like. Neither does the robot cleaning company. The files could be kept on the device without any real loss of functionality. As Washuu posted below, they are now selling these floor plans. Should I make money off the floor plan you send me?
  - JustSomeNobody 9y ago
    But couldn't this all be found out in public records? Look up the neighborhood, then who built the homes. Most builders don't have more than a few dozen floor plans.
    - ancarda 9y ago
      In that case, why don't the companies just access those public files? Why build their own floor plans and send them back to the cloud to be sold? Why is there even a market for buying floor plans from people who didn't realize they were being mapped from their fucking vacuum cleaner. You can't even trust a vacuum cleaner. I'm really coming to despise technology companies.
      - megaman22 9y ago
        Because real houses almost never match the plans? This seems a little paranoid. Everybody does this kind of mapping. Call Home Depot to get an estimate for flooring, and the person they send out laser measures everything and sends you floor plans back accurate to the quarter inch.
  - 9y ago
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
GuB-42 9y ago
Most robotic vacuum cleaners don't map anything at all, they just run around semi-randomly. Some of them are a little smarter and map your room internally in order to be a bit more efficient and move in more predictable patterns. And finally, there are a few expensive models that are connected and are able to upload your floor plan. If you don't want to take advantage of that feature you paid good money for, it is a simple matter of not letting the robot in your home WiFi. The first category of robots start at around $100 and do a decent job at cleaning. I don't think you really need more.

After reading about the house mapping of some robotic vacuum cleaners I'm hesitant to let one into my home.

chaosite 9y ago

... Why? What's so confidential about your floor plan?

taneq 9y ago
Ah, the good ol' "if you have nothing to hide" stance.
Washuu 9y ago
More that iRobot disclosed plans to sell the floor plans to the homes of their product users without telling them. https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/nation-now/2017/07/25/roomba-plans-sell-maps-users-homes/508578001/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/nation-now/2017/07/25/ro... I do not count a clause buried in a terms of service as informed consent.
- valesco 9y ago
  4% of global revenue under the upcoming GDPR. Can't wait.
  - ancarda 9y ago
    rubs hands together I really can't wait for GDPR
- pluma 9y ago
  > I do not count a clause buried in a terms of service as informed consent. Neither do EU courts. I guess this "feature" is only available in the US?
ancarda 9y ago
Could you send me a detailed copy of your floor plan? Ideally, SVG? Thanks! Oh, and anything else the robot sends too, like your IP address and maybe GPS coordinates? If you're willing to send, great -- thank you. I'd love to know, for undisclosed reasons. My email is in my profile, and you can even encrypt the files you send me using PGP. Although note that I'll be putting it on my Azure account and leaving it there for eternity. If you're not willing to send me that, then please don't even try the "you've got nothing to hide" line, because you clearly do! I'm going to start challenging this every time I hear this excuse because it's demonstrably nonsense when challenged. You won't send me that SVG because you know I have no fucking business knowing what your house looks like. Neither does the robot cleaning company. The files could be kept on the device without any real loss of functionality. As Washuu posted below, they are now selling these floor plans. Should I make money off the floor plan you send me?
- JustSomeNobody 9y ago
  But couldn't this all be found out in public records? Look up the neighborhood, then who built the homes. Most builders don't have more than a few dozen floor plans.
  - ancarda 9y ago
    In that case, why don't the companies just access those public files? Why build their own floor plans and send them back to the cloud to be sold? Why is there even a market for buying floor plans from people who didn't realize they were being mapped from their fucking vacuum cleaner. You can't even trust a vacuum cleaner. I'm really coming to despise technology companies.
    - megaman22 9y ago
      Because real houses almost never match the plans? This seems a little paranoid. Everybody does this kind of mapping. Call Home Depot to get an estimate for flooring, and the person they send out laser measures everything and sends you floor plans back accurate to the quarter inch.
- 9y ago
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

GuB-42 9y ago

Most robotic vacuum cleaners don't map anything at all, they just run around semi-randomly. Some of them are a little smarter and map your room internally in order to be a bit more efficient and move in more predictable patterns. And finally, there are a few expensive models that are connected and are able to upload your floor plan. If you don't want to take advantage of that feature you paid good money for, it is a simple matter of not letting the robot in your home WiFi. The first category of robots start at around $100 and do a decent job at cleaning. I don't think you really need more.