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TechnologyHer robot vacuum cleaner takes a picture of her in the WC, the photo is found on the Net
Several people registered to test robot vacuum cleaners from the iRobot brand have found particularly intimate photos of them shared on social networks without their knowledge.
As we know, it is better to always read a contract carefully before signing it and pay particular attention to the small, discreet characters that we tend to skim over. A dozen testers of iRobot, a vacuum robot developed by the Roomba company, learned this the hard way.
This is revealed by a survey published on Tuesday by MIT Technology Review, and relayed by the French press, which tells us that photos of the testers taken by the robot vacuum cleaner ended up on Facebook. Among the problematic images, those of a minor of eight or nine years and that of a woman sitting on the toilet having lowered her shorts.
In the contract
Several testers of the robot vacuum cleaner are shocked. The machine collected a lot of data from its user-testers between 2019 and 2022. The photos taken by the camera of the device had to be analyzed in order to improve its artificial intelligence. However, the snaps were filed by human beings, freelancers located in Venezuela. To carry out their task, they shared certain images on private Facebook groups, Discord and other social networks.
In response to the investigation by MIT Technology Review, iRobot CEO Colin Angle explained that collecting these images was necessary to train the robot vacuum’s object recognition algorithms. Besides, he pointed out, the images were not from customers but from “data collectors and paid employees” who had signed consent agreements. He added that “test participants are informed and acknowledge how the data will be collected”.
“My naked ass on the internet”
However, the company, which said it was unaware of the leaked photos taken by its robot, stopped working with ScaledAI, the service provider that leaked these images. Indeed, according to iRobot, the photos were “shared in violation of a written nondisclosure agreement” with ScaledAI. The company further said it is “actively investigating this matter.”
The testers still feel cheated. Especially since they could not even keep the robots used for these tests and did not receive the final product either. Instead, they are eligible for gift cards ranging from $30 to $120 for using the robot vacuums several times a week for several weeks.
For some test participants, this compensation was disappointing. An anonymous testimony published in the investigation already found the reward insufficient, “even before considering that my bare ass could be found on the Internet”.
(mat)