More Trouble in Smart Device Land

Article at Ars Technica:
Smart TVs are invading privacy and should be investigated, senators say

This kind of privacy invasion business always ends in tears.  None of this stuff is harmless; remember this case involving military personnel running with their Fitbits from last winter?

If nothing else, companies should observe privacy busting behavior's effect on the bottom line.  Last year when an iRobot (maker of Roomba) executive commented about plans to sell maps of customers' houses to other companies, their stock took an immediate 36% nose-dive, and is still 24% off its peak.  The fact is that when people want their houses swept by robots, they don't want the glorified brooms doing the job to tell their maker all about the floor plans.

Didn't someone at some level at iRobot say "Something about this just feels... creepy"?  I guess not.  For what it's worth, I love my six year old (non-mapping) Roomba, but when it's time to replace it I'll look at other companies' offerings first, even though iRobot still makes one non-mapping model that does everything I want it to do.