Are we approaching a science fiction world where our household appliances could filter our information? Although it sounds like an episode of Black Mirrorsomething like this happened with a Roomba.
According to an investigation by MIT Technology Review, in 2020 a woman was using the bathroom in her house when her cleaning robot caught her in that and other intimate moments. The worst part is that somehow the images ended up in closed social media groups.
How the heck did a Roomba take the pictures?
As explained by author Eileen Guo, the manufacturer of the Roombas, iRobot confirmed that the images were captured by one of its robots.
In theory it was not a hacker but part of a program to develop the artificial intelligence capabilities of the Roomba J7 high end.
iRobot explained what happened:
- It was not a consumer Roomba, but one specially armed with recording equipment.
- People were paid for their participation and knew that the data collected would be sent to the company.
- These teams had signs that warned when there was a “video recording in progress.”
- Participants were warned to keep “sensitive” objects and activities out of the Roombas spaces.
All of this is somewhat of a relief, but how, exactly, did the photos end up on Facebook?
The MIT Technology Review He points out that the images and videos collected by the Roomba were sent by iRobot to a startup called Scale AI. This company uses human labor to tag audio, photos, and videos to collect data.
The investigation revealed that the temporary workers were the ones who posted the images of the woman in the bathroom as well as other sensitive photos in private groups on Facebook, Discord and other platforms.
iRobot decided to end its collaboration with the startup and launched a strong internal investigation to prevent any similar leaks by any service provider in the future.
Editorial Team The editorial team of EMPRENDEDOR.com, which for more than 27 years has worked to promote entrepreneurship.
