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Comment by 394549 | Hacker News Reader

My concerns aren't about what the Roomba would do to other devices on my network, but what kind of data it's sending out and how that data could be used. That can't be mitigated by just having the thing connect to a separate network.

I'd rather not have a 3rd party have floor-plans of my house and continuously images of every inch of my home. I'd rather all of that data stay local to a device that I own and control.

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My take on their comment was that they do have a separate wifi connection that is just their phone, vacuum device and an access point with no internet on any of them that is physically separate from the rest of their network.

I'm with you though. No way would I EVER get anything like that that connected to the internet. I can't think of any benefits that would remotely come close to justifying that behavior.

Even if it meant insurance would drop to $0, one "leak" and anyone with a bit of resources can get a nice up to date map of your house, when you're around, what lights are on, when their on, etc. It would be much worse than that site that scarfed social media and documented when people were on vacation, left the house or whatever.

> I'm with you though. No way would I EVER get anything like that that connected to the internet. I can't think of any benefits that would remotely come close to justifying that behavior.

Next up: it'll just connect to 4G. I hope that doesn't happen, but it just seems all too likely.

Im hoping not, since it's more expensive in manufacturing, and people who go through the trouble of not having their Roomba on the internet are more edge cases than normal customers. Plus consumer watchdogs and privacy groups will start to get on your nerves.

I believe the grandparent comment said he cut off internet access for it and the old phone he uses to control it. It sounds like it works on a strictly LAN connection unhindered.

It does sound like a lot of trouble for a vacuum cleaner, though.

I mean, how clean do people need their floors to be? I vacuum like once every couple weeks and it’s not like I’m getting sick or my floors look gross.

We have ours run three times a week due to the amount of dust and dirt our two dogs track into the house. And even then the floor doesn't look pristine.

What type of floor do you have?

Carpets I've had could go months without noticing anything, but the amount of dust bunnies and random crap of unknown origin that got stuck to my feet shocked me the first place I got with a hardwood floor.

The phone opening the access point for the router doesn't have a SIM card, and is just there to provide a WiFi connection for the Roomba to be able to control it. That way, the vacuum can't access the internet but I can still control it.

> That way, the vacuum can't access the internet but I can still control it.

Interesting! The camera functionality still works without an internet connection? I'd always assumed that some of the processing was getting offloaded to the "cloud," since I couldn't see another reasonable need for the wifi connection.

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