Amazon’s proposed acquisition of iRobot is reportedly facing an EU investigation over potential privacy issues. The European Commission is said to be scrutinizing the deal due to concerns that Roomba robot vacuums, which are part of iRobot’s product line, could capture imagery that Amazon might use to gain a “competitive advantage” by combining it with Alexa data. This investigation follows a recent MIT Technology Review report that discovered photos taken by development versions of Roomba J7 vacuums had reached private Discord and Facebook groups, which raised privacy concerns.
