Smart-Thermostat Maker, Ecobee, has said “No” to Amazon who is trying to collect customer data from its smart home products through force. The Online Retail giant is threatening Ecobee’s ability to sell its products on its platform.
Though Ecobee’s products are still available on Amazon, Wall Street Journal claims that both companies are currently in a state of negotiation. The report was WSJ gave confirms that Amazon asked the Canadian company to share data from its Alexa-enabled smart thermostats. The Online Retail giant claims to want this even when Ecobee’s customers are not actively using the voice assistant.
Ecobee has denied Amazon access to report about the state of the user’s home. This includes data that shows which doors were locked or unlocked and the set temperature.
The Canadian company seems to have strong reasons why it’s not granting data access to Amazon.
Firstly, it fears that enabling its devices to report this data to Amazon would violate trust given to them by their customers.
Secondly, Ecobee is also concerned that Retail giant might use the data to build competing products. History records that Amazon once took non-public sales data and using it to develop products. The Retail giant has once been charged to court for using sales data to duplicate and sell products by other brands.
The report by WSJ also confirmed that Amazon outsmarts these companies it hosts who sell products and services on its platform. It operates by using different markets to potentially abuse these other companies. More report on this as both parties seeks a resolution from their negotiation.
