The spy that cleans your floors; researchers say home robots could be building intimate profiles of American families, and most people have no idea it is happening

Your robot vacuum has an exact idea of the layout of each room in your home. Your AI companion robot has probably seen your kids do their homework. Your smart speaker could have things you would never say in public. And somewhere on a server you will never see, all of that is sitting in a database, probably one you agreed to share without even knowing it.

This is not speculation. According to a February 2026 study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, 'It's like a pet... but my pet doesn't collect data about me: Multi-person Households' Privacy Design Preferences for Household Robots', household robots equipped with mobility, cameras, microphones, and powerful AI models create privacy risks far beyond those posed by earlier smart home devices.

The study found that people do not fundamentally trust that robots, or the companies that build them, will handle their personal data responsibly. And a robot that can roam around your home can observe private moments a stationary smart speaker could never dream of.


The robot that knows too much
The problem with home robots is not what they collect, but how much more they can collect compared to older devices.

A smart speaker sits on your kitchen counter, listening to everything that happens around it. By contrast, a home robot can drift into your bedroom, loiter near a private conversation, or roll past a computer screen displaying your bank account. According to the University of Wisconsin–Madison study, participants in co-design sessions were especially concerned by their robot’s ability to roam unsupervised. One participant described feeling “held hostage” in their own home, changing their daily routines depending on where the robot might end up. Another simply didn’t want to be alone in a room with it, even when they knew it wasn’t actively recording.

That unease is not unwarranted. The same study discovered that people who live together in homes, families, roommates, or couples often have different privacy preferences. Rarely was one person’s comfort level with the robot gathering data the same as another’s. Who decides when the device is turned on? What if a guest is talking in its presence, not knowing it is listening?

Your home is being profiled, not just recorded
Consumer Reports notes that the makers of smart devices collect far more data than most realize. It’s not just about how often your robot vacuum cleans or the sizes of your rooms. It reaches into photos and videos a device’s camera might have captured, your home address, and personal details you never consciously gave up. Some of this data is used for in-house research. Some of it is sold to third parties.

One security tester for Consumer Reports discovered that a device was sending the equivalent of 135,000 text messages’ worth of data a week back to the company that made it. According to Consumer Reports, users technically agree to all of this through end-user license agreements that almost no one reads, and the scope of what is being collected is rarely disclosed in plain language.

Experts say this is the part people get wrong most often. These devices build up detailed and intimate profiles of your household over time, your routines, your relationships, your health, and your finances, which you have very little power to reclaim once they have left your home.

Children and older adults could face the biggest risks
In a 2025 study, ‘“Is it always watching? Is it always listening?" Exploring Contextual Privacy and Security Concerns Toward Domestic Social Robots’ by Duke University, based on 19 in-depth interviews with US adults about domestic social robots, participants were far more concerned when children or older family members were involved. Other participants expressed concern about children being recorded without their knowledge or consent. Others feared that elderly relatives who may not fully understand what the device is capable of could be nudged into sharing sensitive personal or medical information with a robot that presents itself as friendly and trustworthy.

According to Duke researchers, even when those robots perform health-related work, domestic social robots are not yet covered by HIPAA and other US healthcare privacy laws. One of the study’s participants thought that HIPAA would cover their robot. It isn’t. Researchers also highlight significant gaps in existing legislation protecting children’s privacy regarding robots passively observing children in shared spaces within a house without actually collecting information from them.

What you can do right now
The simplest and most practical steps, according to Consumer Reports, are to check the privacy settings on all your connected devices, turn off any data-collection features you don’t need, keep device software updated for security patches, and set up a separate guest Wi-Fi network for smart appliances so a compromised device can’t access your phone or computer.

People also want physical controls, lights, camera shutters, and dedicated buttons that leave no doubt a device is recording, say researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. They want local data storage, not automatic uploads to the cloud. And they want to be able to see and erase what’s been gathered about them. None of these features is standard on most home robots sold in the US today.

The researchers aren’t recommending people steer clear of these devices entirely. They argue consumers should receive clear, honest information about what is being collected and real tools to protect themselves before the sale, rather than being buried in the fine print.

Your robot vacuum isn’t necessarily spying on you. But it could be, and, at the moment, there is very little to stop it.