More than two dozen groups that are critical of Amazon’s anti-competitive practices and surveillance capitalism have urged the FTC to block Amazon’s acquisition of iRobot, which develops Roomba vacuum cleaners. According to the coalition, “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.”
Common Dreams reports that over two dozen groups that are critical of Amazon’s anti-competitive and invasive surveillance practices have urged the FTC to block the company’s acquisition of iRobot. The coalition, including Fight for the Future, Electronic Frontier Foundation, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and Public Citizen, wrote to the FTC about the recent $1.7 billion cash deal to purchase iRobot.
Roomba by iRobot (Tod Kurt/Flickr)
The letter states:
The proposed deal poses a striking set of concerns related to consumer privacy and market competition. 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 further highlights that “Amazon already dominates the smart home device market,” referring to Amazon’s Alexa-powered devices. The letter argues that the company’s “business model largely relies on acquiring rivals,” in reference to Amazon’s 2018 acquisition of the video-doorbell manufacturer Ring.
The coalition stated in the letter:
By 2021, Amazon Ring had crushed competing smart doorbell makers—selling as many units as its four closest competitors combined. Amazon’s success relied on selling low-price Ring doorbells through its almost ubiquitous e-commerce platform, aided by integration with the company’s subscription program, Amazon Prime.
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 further ads 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.” The “intimate facts” that the letter refers to include consumers’ home floor plans, daily routines, and various other lifestyle choices which can be tracked by iRobot’s Roomba vacuum cleaners.
“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.”
The letter ends by stating: “If the FTC commissioners care about protecting privacy, communities of color, and pregnant people, they will challenge Amazon’s iRobot acquisition.”
Read more at Common Dreams here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan
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