Privacy-Sensitive Robotics

Abstract

As robots start to enter our everyday lives, they will bring with them the risk of privacy invasions. Unlike videoconferencing, we might not have control of where the sensors on our robots look, and where the robots go. They might operating in or homes and offices while we are not there, opening the door to an invasion of our privacy that no previous technology has been capable of. How do people think about privacy in terms of robots? Are they worried about their privacy being violated and, if so, in what ways? How does the law view the issues around privacy and robotics? What are the pressing questions that we need to address now, before it's too late. This workshop will bring together researchers from a wide variety of communities to look at these questions, identify others, and help define the new area of Privacy-Sensitive Robotics. The workshop will result in a white paper that defines the pressing issues in Privacy-Sensitive Robotics, from a variety of perspectives, and will suggest a research agenda to address these problems.