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Comment by ls15 | Hacker News Reader

> You are absolutely right, but I’m not sure I want to have a free roaming camera and LiDAR sensor from a Chinese company in my home. Absolute piss poor track record of data collection

I am not sure if Amazon is more trustworthy than that.

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I would say Amazon has plenty of problems, but also plenty more incentive to behave and try to be careful with the data.

Don't they give camera feeds to law enforcement without warrant?

Yes, and they’re still more trustworthy than a Chinese company

Kinda. The problem is your threat model, no? If you think of US law enforcement as adversary, using Amazon products is a very bad idea.

If US law enforcement is your adversary you’re already fucked. All US companies are subject to subpoena.

Asking for data, and getting it without warrant, is golden.

This is legal for the FBI. An illegal wiretap is not.

A subpoena needs to be signed off by a judge. And there is an appeals process.

I mean there are countless documented situations where U.S. law enforcement has dramatically overreached or misstepped, and personally, I’d prefer people who have cameras and microphones in my home to require the U.S. judiciary to review some facts and agree to issue a warrant for any access. Amazon doesn’t meet this test and so this acquisition likely means we’ll be parting ways with iRobot equipment in our home.

I guess you could say my threat model is not “the United States is my adversary”, and more that I appreciate some checks and balances being present on ‘local yokel’ police departments which are empirically not always doing the right thing (especially where oversight is low).

Not if you’re more worried about the American government than the Chinese government.

How so, logically speaking, setting xenophobia and/or racism aside?

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