In an age when security and privacy often go hand-in-hand, it is an inevitable conundrum that they complement and contradict each other.
The debate has been rekindled with the launch of Astro, Amazon’s first home robot, last week.
The newest addition to Amazon’s lineup of doorbells, speakers and security cameras came as a surprise, even though Astro’s development has been long rumoured.
Incidentally, Amazon is just the latest in a long line of companies, including fellow tech giants LG and Samsung, to bring a home robot out on stage.
Across the world, most of the homes are yet to have robots, except for those which vacuum floors.
But Amazon is set to entice by offering Astro at $1,000 for the initial buyers on invitation basis and later at $1,450.
What sets Amazon apart from others that have built home robots is the company’s scale in households and its ability to connect with consumers, said Jonathan Collins, smart home research director at ABI Research.
This may help Amazon drive the new market for home robotics with Astro, in the same way it did for smart home hubs with its Echo smart speakers.
For people who already have a number of Amazon smart home products — Ring doorbells, Echo devices and others — Astro will slot right into their existing ecosystem, said Filipe Oliveira, senior analyst at Global Data.
Amazon says Astro is more than just Alexa on wheels, but that will be a major selling point for many, he added.
Astro has facial recognition built in, along with a periscope camera that can check whether we left our ovens on.
It can map our homes, like the robotic vacuum cleaners, and follow strangers around too, provided they don’t go up the stairs (Astro cannot climb stairs). But, as CNET smart home expert Ry Crist noted, Astro likely isn’t smart enough to know when we need privacy or to respect boundaries in terms of surveillance. “It isn’t for Amazon or any other big tech company to decide how much privacy we deserve in our homes,” he wrote. “Our homes are meant to be safe, intimate spaces where we can be ourselves with our families without fear of discovery or judgment.”
One big stumbling block for Amazon could be the privacy concerns that have already been raised widely due to the prevalence of smart speakers and cameras in homes.
They’ve reached another level now that those speakers and cameras are on wheels.
Astro’s cameras contain facial recognition to identify the people in your home, and the robot will follow anyone that crosses its path until it can tell who they are.
Astro will notify you if something seems amiss, and you can watch its recorded video clips on your phone.
It uses sonar-like infrared light pings to navigate around obstacles and create a map of your home.
Amazon tried to allay people’s fears during its presentation by boasting of Astro’s privacy controls.
According to leading global market research company Forrester’s analyst Thomas Husson, Amazon has explained that all video and facial-matching data are processed on the device, which means the Astro doesn’t send images up to Amazon’s servers.
Amazon also allows Astro’s owners to turn off the robot’s camera and mic.
But those maps of your home do get uploaded to Amazon’s cloud.
How about that? The next round of debate begins.