Social Robots Pose Unique Privacy Risks, Says Duke Paper
AI-equipped social robots may “seem like a natural evolution of traditional smart home devices,” but “their extensive data collection capabilities, anthropomorphic features, and capacity to interact with their environment make social robots a more significant security and privacy threat,” said a Duke University paper released this week.
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“Social robots are emerging as the next generation of Internet of Things (IoT) technology,” wrote Duke professor Pardis Emami-Naeini and students Henry Bell, Jabari Kwesi and Hiba Laabadli. “These devices are characterized by their integration of advanced artificial intelligence (AI), physical embodiment, and ability to interact with users on a social level.”
Although they may seem like traditional IoT devices, social robots “present unique privacy and security risks to users,” the authors said. “To enable their functionality, social robots must collect a massive amount of sensitive and multimodal data from users. The AI-driven interactions of a social robot often prompt users to (over)share sensitive information, and if user data is used to train the AI models powering these robots, personal information could be leaked through memorization.”
The increased privacy and security risks “include data linkage, unauthorized data sharing, and the physical safety of users and their homes,” they said. “It is critical to investigate U.S. users’ security and privacy needs and concerns to guide the design of social robots while these devices are still in the early stages of commercialization in the U.S. market.”
Meta AI users posting what's typically private information for everyone to see on the app have recently raised questions about whether all users understand they’re sharing their AI queries with the world (see 2506120082).