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Comment by i_am_nomad | Hacker News Reader

Exactly. Roomba has left themselves a lot of latitude by simply saying they they will never "sell" the data. What they should say is, they will never transfer the unencrypted data to a third party, and will never enable a third party with the encrypted data to decrypt it.

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That's (sadly) entirely too specific and technical for general communication. The more specific you get, the more someone will wonder if there's a loophole.

Rightfully so! Why, already under the terms of your parent, we can imagine the company transferring your data encrypted with rot13.

What, they broke the encryption and got your data!? Mercy me, how terrible, we sure didn't enable them to do that!

> What they should say is, they will never transfer the unencrypted data to a third party, and will never enable a third party with the encrypted data to decrypt it.

Doesn't really work... they can send the encrypted data to Y and the encryption key to Z so that Y and Z can make their own agreements.

They do say they will never share with 3rd party without consent, and will delete any data collected on request.

https://homesupport.irobot.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/964/~...

Full disclosure: I am a former iRobot Engineer

From that URL:

    "...nothing will be shared without the permission of our customers."

That is already a lie. If required by a court order to do so, they will absolutely share without the permission of their customers.

Fair enough, though I do think calling it put as a lie is a bit strong, in the context of the FAQ linked since I read it as third-parties meaning other private companies, not government agencies in response to a legal request. (That may be my bias since I worked there, know the culture, and still have plebty of friends there).

I can absolutely see your point, and would say that they do have actual legal pages on their privacy policy and data security measure, which mentions that they will respond to a legal subpoena, and that you can at any time request that your personal data be deleted, which theu will do.

Again, look you can think I'm full of it amd take this with a huge grain of salt, since I did worm there. All I can tell you is that the people who worked there and started that company are there to make cool robots, not to be personal data brokers or an advertising company, and any conversations we had when I was there were about how we could make things work with other services and do neat smart home stuff, while keeping peoples information safe and privacy intact, not about how we can make money off of peoples data.

(apologies for the typos, small phone screen and fat fingers!)

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