Interesting Article on Roomba's Use of Data
No surprise here.
Just think about the many other companies that offer free lifetime smart home related services. How will they monetize? But if folks want free, it is a fair trade.
In the case of Roomba; why connect your vacuum to the cloud? It’s just gonna get soggy.
The sad thing is, a lot of people won’t catch exactly what you’re getting at here.
In short, people will complain about this kind of data mining/selling, but at the same time scoff at paying $24 for a piece of extremely useful software and want everything for free…
I agree. There are some things that just don’t need to be connected to the cloud. But, as @Benji stated, a lot of people just don’t care to educate themselves on what is acceptable privacy-wise.
Besides, isn’t Google and Amazon already making audio maps of our homes with the Google Home and Echo devices? 
(Get ready for the tinfoil hat crowd to blow a gasket) lol
If they aren’t already, they will soon enough.
Alexa units already are able to distinguish the closest unit, and customers are begging for “context sensitive” command handling (ie., “turn on the lights” will know to mean the current room’s lights by default…).
Never underestimate the power to capture data, and never underestimate the value of this data.
I see no harm in a company that provides me cloud services for life (with no recurring fees) selling some data.
It will be anonymised ‘meta’ with no link whatsoever to me except maybe sex, age, approx geographical area etc.
The companies that buy this data use it to improve services for all…
Fair compromise in my book.
That’s a rather rosy view of corporations…
The companies that buy this data only do so in order to maximize their profits. They use it to manipulate consumer behavior, which, through erosion of privacy and big data analysis, they are able to build psychological profiles of market segments to an incredible degree of accuracy.
Increasing people’s subconscious willingness for excessive consumption is the goal.
I guess that’s true, but I still feel I prefer being bombarded with products tailored to my needs v a bunch of rubbish that doesent suit my requirements or usage patterns.
The vendors prefer that too…
The problem is that the average consumer cannot differentiate what they need from what they want; especially if that “need” has been created via highly sophisticated intelligent manipulative marketing.