Coalition Tells FTC to Curb Amazon ‘Surveillance Empire’ by Blocking Purchase of iRobot
More than two dozen groups critical of Amazon’s anti-competitive and invasive practices on Friday urged the Biden administration to block the tech giant’s acquisition of iRobot, known for its Roomba vacuum cleaners, “on the strongest legal grounds it can muster.”
“The proposed deal poses a striking set of concerns related to consumer privacy and market competition,” the letter states. “Allowing Amazon to absorb a competing smart home device business with access to incredibly detailed consumer data would endanger fair competition and open markets while also jeopardizing consumer privacy.”
The letter highlights that “Amazon already dominates the smart home device market,” pointing to all the Alexa-powered devices, and argues that the company’s “business model largely relies on acquiring rivals,” noting its 2018 acquisition of the doorbell maker Ring.
Amazon seeks to follow a similar path in buying iRobot. By purchasing an already popular smart home device, they will be able to extend the device’s prevalence through anti-competitive pricing while using personal consumer data to further entrench their monopoly power in the digital economy. By selling the Roomba brand at or near a loss via the Prime subscription, the company can access more personal consumer data to buttress its anti-competitive advantages online. In short, the deal will further entrench Amazon’s hold on the smart home technology ecosystem, eliminate competition in that sector, and enhance the company’s monopoly power.
The letter also emphasizes that “there is no more private space than the home. Yet with this acquisition, Amazon stands to gain access to extremely intimate facts about our most private spaces that are not available through other means, or to other competitors,” including consumers’ home floor plans, daily routines, and lifestyle choices.
“Amazon uses data not only to further its anti-competitive goals as described in further detail above, but also to feed data-hungry algorithms that attempt to predict and shape the behavior of individual consumers,” the letter explains. “These algorithms, when paired with Amazon’s worldwide impact, exacerbate racist and gender-biased systems of oppression.”
Fight for the Future director Evan Greer echoed the coalition’s warnings in a statement Friday.
“The tech giant’s Big Brother-like surveillance network shares warrantless surveillance data with the police, incentivizes racists to criminalize people of color, and gives forced birthers the tools to surveil and snitch on abortion seekers and providers,” she said. “As Amazon’s surveillance empire grows in size, so do its threats to all of us.”
Greer also pointed out that “we know the FTC cares about privacy rights,” because the agency—led by Lina Khan—is already “exploring rule-making to address privacy abuses.”
Originally published at Commondreams.org.
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