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A comment on Robot Vacuum Roomba Maker Files for Bankruptcy After 35 Years. Parent comment

Re:Robot Vacuum Roomba Maker Files for Bankruptcy After 35 Y... by giarc on Monday December 15, 2025 @08:59AM (#46274617)
The concern - for you, maybe nothing. However, the new company could say "turn on microphone for all vacuums in the DC area and send transcripts to us" (trying to capture private conversations of politicians. Or it could do the same for vacuums located new military bases or corporate headquarters. With transcription software and AI, it could simply record and transcribe every conversation it hears and look for important information or mentions of key phrases.
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Re:Robot Vacuum Roomba Maker Files for Bankruptcy After 35 Y... by root_axis on Monday December 15, 2025 @09:06AM (#46274715)
> However, the new company could say "turn on microphone for all vacuums in the DC area and send transcripts to us"

The old company could have done the same thing. I recognize that China is a u.s. geopolitical adversary, but when it comes to politics domestic adversaries are just as ruthless.

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Re:Robot Vacuum Roomba Maker Files for Bankruptcy After 35 Y... by IAmBroom on Monday December 15, 2025 @10:49AM (#46276031)
The old company wasn't a domestic political adversary; it was a capitalist corporation.

I'm not making moral comparisons; I'm just saying that the motivations of the PRRC and Coca-Cola are different.

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Re:Robot Vacuum Roomba Maker Files for Bankruptcy After 35 Y... by root_axis on Monday December 15, 2025 @12:15PM (#46277289)
> The old company wasn't a domestic political adversary

That depends entirely on the politics in question. It's well known that corporations are willing to abuse their power for political ends if it serves their interests to do so.

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Re:Robot Vacuum Roomba Maker Files for Bankruptcy After 35 Y... by Cyph0n on Monday December 15, 2025 @11:17AM (#46276472)
It was a capitalist corporation beholden to demands by domestic law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

And just because a corporation is based in China doesn’t automatically make it some kind of government managed communist entity.

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Re:Robot Vacuum Roomba Maker Files for Bankruptcy After 35 Y... by margalabargala on Monday December 15, 2025 @02:14PM (#46278960)
If you live in the US, it is better for you if the home robots with microphones are controlled by the US than the US' geopolitical rival.
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Re:Robot Vacuum Roomba Maker Files for Bankruptcy After 35 Y... by Cyph0n on Monday December 15, 2025 @03:27PM (#46280115)
Can you expand on why that’s the case?

Suppose the Chinese gov has access to my robovac data. Given that I reside in the US, how is that worse than ICE having access to my data?

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