After years of financial difficulties, iRobot, the brand behind the first commercially successful robot vacuum cleaner, Roomba, has been taken over by Chinese contract manufacturing company Picea.
Shortly after the news broke, company co-founder Helen Greiner said in an interview with Bloomberg that she found it “strange” that there hadn’t been a huge public outcry that iRobot’s data and information “will belong to a Chinese company.” [quote at 7.50].
Cohen directed me to the safety statements posted on the company’s website (I couldn’t access the US policy at the time of writing, but the UK policy was available to read) and assured me that customers could easily remove their names from iRobot’s list if they wished.
“We protect your data. Everything is encrypted and that’s how we run the business,” he told me. “We are the most secure of all and, in fact, we have won awards for our ability to protect data, to protect [against] violations, but more importantly, protect the data in terms of where it is hosted.”
No changes
They sent me another statement from iRobot on the subject says: “There have been no changes to the way iRobot collects, maintains, stores or uses personal information in connection with the reorganization transaction, and we do not expect such changes. Any updates to our existing data processing or security activities will always be made in accordance with our online Privacy Policy (found here) and applicable laws.”
Cohen also confirmed to me that current Roomba owners did not need to worry about product and app support for their robovacs, and that it would be business as usual immediately upon purchase. Beyond that, he feels very optimistic about iRobot’s future with Picea. Watch this space.
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