Privacy Guide · 4 min read
A modern home robot can hold a floor plan of your house, a camera feed of your rooms, and a microphone in your living space. That is worth ten minutes of scrutiny before it starts working.
ⓘ Quick answer
The three things worth establishing first are whether video and audio are processed on the device or in the cloud, whether the floor map leaves your home, and whether you can delete all of it later. Everything else follows from those answers.
Before you buy
- Where is video and audio processed? On-device processing keeps recordings in your home. Cloud processing means they leave it. Both are legitimate designs, but you should know which you are choosing.
- Does your floor map leave the house? A map of your home is genuinely sensitive data. Find out whether it is stored on the robot, on a server, or both.
- Can you delete your data, including the map? Look for an explicit delete function rather than a vague promise in the privacy policy.
- Is data shared with third parties? Read the sharing section of the privacy policy specifically. This is where the real answer sits.
- How long are security updates provided? An internet-connected device without security patches becomes a liability on your network.
After it arrives
- Change the default password and enable two-factor authentication. Weak account security, not clever hacking, is how these devices are usually compromised.
- Turn off features you do not use. Remote viewing, voice assistants, and usage analytics are often on by default. Disable what you will not miss.
- Put it on a guest or IoT network. Isolating smart devices from your computers and phones limits what a compromised robot can reach.
- Set physical no-go zones. Keep camera-equipped robots out of bedrooms and bathrooms using the app rather than relying on trust.
- Factory reset before selling or discarding it. A used robot can carry your floor plan and account details to its next owner.
Warning signs in a product listing
- No privacy policy, or one that never mentions the camera or microphone.
- No stated commitment to security updates.
- A mandatory account for features that clearly do not need the internet.
- No way to delete stored data or the saved map.
- Remote access enabled by default with no obvious off switch.
Keeping it in proportion
None of this means home robots are unsafe. It means they are connected computers with sensors, and they deserve the same basic hygiene as your router or phone. A robot from a vendor that documents its data handling and patches its software is a reasonable thing to own.
The devices to avoid are the ones that will not tell you how they work.
Frequently asked questions
Do robot vacuums record video of my home?
Camera-equipped models capture images to navigate. Whether those images are stored or uploaded depends entirely on the model, which is why the on-device versus cloud question matters.
Is a floor map really sensitive?
It describes the layout, size, and furnishing of your home. Treat it as personal data and check whether you can delete it.
Should I put my robot on a separate network?
If your router supports a guest or IoT network, yes. It is a few minutes of work and meaningfully limits what a compromised device can reach.
Are lidar-only robots more private?
They collect no imagery, which removes one category of risk. They still build a map of your home, so the map questions still apply.