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iRobot denies it will sell map data about customers’ rooms and houses

iRobot says it will “never” sell the data its little robotic vacuum cleaners collect while mapping and navigating people’s rooms and homes. 

In a statement provided to ZDNet, Colin Angle, CEO of iRobot, reassured customers by saying: “iRobot will never sell your data.”

The statement follows comments Angle gave to Reuters suggesting that the company might consider selling maps iRobot’s Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner generates of users’ homes. 

But the company has subsequently moved to clarify its views on the matter, saying that if Roomba users choose to share their maps, they can do so.

The sharing of maps would enable other smart home devices to benefit from the huge database that iRobot has built through the millions of Roombas it has so far sold.

This data could be very valuable, but Angle says in his statement: “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.”

Data is probably the most highly sought-after commodity in business today, and the marketing industry depends on it.

A graphic produced – published below – by Villanova University explains how data is used in the digital marketing industry today.

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Villanova University’s Online Master of Science in Analytics degree program

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