Merger between Amazon and iRobot called off! And some Amazon privacy good news!

The merger, announced August 2022, was seen as kind of fraught from the beginning. People didn't like the idea of Amazon having a robot running around inside their house with a camera and precision measuring devices mapping out their houses and reporting back to the Bezos mothership, then potentially reporting back that 'this couch or table would fit perfectly right There'. We know the privacy issues that Alexa has/had, and iRobot would probably have elevated those to a very uncomfortable degree.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240128042393/en/


In the good news area, the Amazon Ring video camera doorbell has improved things a bit. They have recently shut down an app that allowed police to access video footage without a warrant using an app called RFA, Request For Assistance. While this has obvious benefits for hot crimes of the moment, it also has profound potential for abuse for bored officers just wanting to pop around and see what's happening, or perhaps stalk old lovers. Now they'll have to explain things to a judge before they can pour through that footage.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/01/amazon-ring-stops-letting-cops-get-doorbell-footage-without-a-warrant/