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A comment on FTC Investigating Amazon’s Acquisition of iRobot. Parent comment

Re:FTC Investigating Amazon’s Acquisition of iRobot by treis on Monday September 12, 2022 @08:54AM (#32809407)
Because it needs Bluetooth and/or WiFi to connect to the vacuum. Those both require location privileges
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Re:FTC Investigating Amazon’s Acquisition of iRobot by Zagill on Monday September 12, 2022 @10:09AM (#32810516)
Wait, what? An app can't get access to Bluetooth without also getting my location? That seems like a bit of an oversight
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Re:FTC Investigating Amazon’s Acquisition of iRobot by treis on Monday September 12, 2022 @10:19AM (#32810693)
Other way around. An app with Bluetooth/Wifi access can determine your approximate location by seeing what devices are nearby. So the OS asks you to grant location permissions since, in effect, that is what you're granting the app.
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Re:FTC Investigating Amazon’s Acquisition of iRobot by MichaelCollins on Monday September 12, 2022 @12:25PM (#32812662)
Do you have neighbors? The Roomba may be able to connect to the internet even if you never give it your wifi password or pair it with your phone.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Sidewalk

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Re:FTC Investigating Amazon’s Acquisition of iRobot by treis on Monday September 12, 2022 @01:04PM (#32813237)
What does that have to do with requiring location services to configure the app?
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Re:FTC Investigating Amazon’s Acquisition of iRobot by MichaelCollins on Monday September 12, 2022 @01:23PM (#32813572)
It means they could eliminate that requirement but it wouldn't be a meaningful improvement to privacy, because the roomba would still know where it is.
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