At the moment tech-giants like Google and Amazon are performing a balancing act between providing more personalized hardware to consumers and preventing a possible backlash when it comes to extended data collection.
Take Amazon’s most recent in-house hardware for example; the Ring Always Home Cam (see picture). This flying drone will patrol the house and look for possible intruders. While knowing when there is an intruder in your house is a noble goal, having a camera flying around 24/7 is a giant invasion of someone’s personal space. Consumers buying these products either are ignorant of these invasions or place great faith in the integrity of a company. For Amazon these developments are understandable. With Alexa the company already has voice data gathered, a camera would provide more valuable data on their consumers. It seems like the next step for ecosystem drivers to gather even more information about their end-consumers.
Google also has shown intentions to gather increasingly more information and with Google Home they have a direct competitor for Amazon’s Alexa. Their recent $2.1bn acquisition of Fitbit cannot be seen separately from these data collection developments. This is where regulators drew the line however. The EU threatened to cancel the deal if concessions were not made. An agreement seems to have been reached, with (among others) a promise by Google to not use the Fitbit data for targeted advertisements for the next 10 years.
This begs the question where the line actually is. What do you think? Is buying privacy-invading equipment fully the responsibility of the consumer? Or, as tech gets more advanced and complicated, regulators like the EU should step in to protect the consumer?
Sources:
https://www.ft.com/content/8eaf8ee5-b074-4d48-b4fa-15d35a185a5d
https://www.ft.com/content/78c9ba4d-f613-4f69-889a-35b1636c2d99
Hi Rick,
I really like the topic of your blog post as it raises an interesting concern. Personally, I wasn’t even aware that Amazon was thinking of or launching such a product. I’m well aware of the fact that tech-giants like Google and Amazon are trying to gather as much data as possible to learn more about their consumers but I do think that at some point there should be a certain limit. I must say that with Google Home and Alexa these tech giants are already exploring their boundaries. I feel that on one side theses privacy invading technologies are the full responsibility of the consumer. Consumers should know what kind of product they are buying. They should be well aware of what kinds of data products are collecting but I think that this is one of the major problems, consumers are simply not aware. Maybe we as consumers are too gullible or good hearted and need governments to step it. Therefore, I think that slowly we have arrived a point where governments or the EU should step in, in order to protect the consumer. These sorts of technological devices are highly intrusive and should raise serious concerns on both a private and governmental level. There should be stronger regulations when it comes to launching new privacy-invading products.
Hi Martino,
Thank you for your comment. You raise a fair point that consumers should know what they are buying. In an ideal situation there would be enough awareness and people would make an informed choice. I agree that this awareness currently is a problem. I do believe this will get better, but this looks like a slow proces. Up until that time it is up to the elected officials to work in the interest of the people and make informed decisions on their behalf. This probably has to take the form of stronger regulations indeed.