"A Robot Is Watching You”: Humanoid Robots And The Different Impacts On Privacy

Vol.15,No.2(2021)

Abstract

Robots, particularly the ones that belong to a special type of robotic technologies designed and deployed for communicating and interacting with humans, slip into more and more domains of human life - from the research laboratories and operating rooms to our kitchens, bedrooms, and offices. They can interact with humans with facial expressions, gaze directions, and voices, mimicking the affective dynamics of human relationships. As a result, they create new opportunities, but also new challenges and risks to peoples’ privacy. 

The literature on privacy issues in the context of Social Companion Robots (SCRs) is poor and has a strong focus on information privacy and data protection. It has given, however, less attention to other dimensions of privacy, e.g. physical, emotional, or social privacy. This article argues for an “evolving” or “transformable” notion of privacy, as opposed to the “elusive” concept of privacy elaborated by leading privacy theorists such as Daniel J. Solove (2008) and Judith J. Thomson (1975). In other words, rather than assuming that privacy has a single core or definition (as defined, e.g., in Warren and Brandeis' 1890 paper), it maintains that it is important to conceptualize privacy as distinguishable into various aspects, including informational privacy, the privacy of thoughts and actions, and social privacy. This inductive approach makes it possible to identify new dimensions of privacy and therefore effectively respond to the rapid technological evolution in AI technologies which is constantly introducing new spheres of privacy intrusions.


Keywords:
Artificial Intelligence; Robotics; Human Rights; Technology; Privacy; Humanoid Robots

Pages:
247–278
Author biography

Lucas Cardiell

European University Institute

I’m a Ph.D. researcher at the European University Institute, Florence, Italy. My principal academic passion is understanding the relationship between human rights, artificial intelligence, and robotics.  My current doctoral research focuses on the ways in which humanoid social robots benefit but also put the right to privacy at risk.
References

[1] Allen, L, A (2011) Unpopular Privacy: What Must We Hide? New York: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195141375.001.0001

[2] Aristotle (1944) in 23 Volumes, Vol. 21, translated by H. Rackham. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd.

[3] Asimov, I (1950) Liar. In Astounding Science Fiction, Reprinted in “I, Robot”.

[4] Balkin, J. M. (2016) Information Fiduciaries and the First Amendment. UC Davis Law Review. Vol. 49, No. 4.

[5] Bekey, G (2017) Autonomous Robots: From Biological Inspiration to Implementation and Control. Paperback

[6] Bryson, J. J (2009) Robots should be slaves. Artificial Models of Natural Intelligence University of Bath, BA2 7AY, United Kingdom

[7] Calo, R (2012) Robots and Privacy. In Patrick Lin, George Bekey, Keith Abney (Eds.), Robot Ethics: The Ethical and Social Implications of Robotics (1st ed.) Cambridge, MA: MIT Press

[8] Calo, R (2014) Robots and Privacy, in Robot Ethics: The Ethical and Social Implications of Robotics. Patrick Lin, Bekey, G and Keith Abney, eds.

[9] Calo, R (2015) Robotics and The Lessons Of Cyberlaw, 103 Calif. L. Rev. 1.

[10] Cannataci, J. A. (2016) The Individual and Privacy, Routledge, V.1. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315239002

[11] Cerka, P. et al, (2015) Liability For Damages Caused By AI, Computer Law &Security Review. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clsr.2015.03.008

Turing, A. M. (1950) Computing Machinery and Intelligence, Mind, New Series, Vol. 59, No. 236. https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/LIX.236.433

[12] Cohen, J. E. (2013) What Privacy is for, 126 HARV. L. REV. 1904, 1907

[13] Darling, K (2012). Extending legal protection to social robots: The effects of anthropomorphism, empathy and violent behavior towards robotic objects.

[14] Fong, T., Nourbakhsh, I., and Dautenhahn, K (2002) A survey of socially interactive robots. Robotics and autonomous systems 42, no. 3-4. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0921-8890(02)00372-X

[15] Fosch-Villaronga. E., Millar, C. (2018) Cloud Robotics Law and Regulations, Challenges in the Governance of Complex and Dynamic Cyber-Physical Ecosystems.

[16] Koops, B. K, Di Carlo, A. Nocco, L. Cassamassima, V. Elettra, S (2913) Robotic technologies and fundamental rights. International Journal of Technoethics

[17] Gavison, R (1980) Privacy and the Limits of Law, 89 YALE L.J. https://doi.org/10.2307/795891

[18] Gunkel, D. J (2018) Robot Rights. Massachusetts Institute Of Technology. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/11444.001.0001

[19] Gutwirth, S (2002) Privacy and the information age (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 30

[20] Lessig, L (1999) Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace 1st ed.

[21] Minsky, M (1969) Semantic information processing. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press

[22] Nissenbaum, H (2004) Privacy as Contextual Integrity”, Washington Law Review, 79:1

[23] Nissenbaum, H (2010) Privacy in Context: Technology, Policy and the Integrity of Social Life. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804772891

[24] Richardson, J. Law and the Philosophy of Law. Routledge. 2016. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203516133

[25] Prosser, L. W., (1960) Privacy. California Law Review. https://doi.org/10.2307/3478805

[26] Richards, N. M., Smart, W. D (2013) How Should the Law Think About Robots? https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2263363

[27] Rössler, B (2004) The Value of Privacy. Polity; 1st ed.

[28] Sartor, G. (2017). Human Rights and Information Technologies. The Oxford Handbook of Law, Regulation and Technology. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199680832.013.79

[29] Scheinin, M. (2009) Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, A/HRC/13/37.

[30] Snow, C. P (2993) The two cultures: and a second look. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge.

[31] Stuart, R., and Norvig, P. (1995) Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach.

[32] Subramanian, R (2017) Emergent AI, Social Robots and the Law: Security, Privacy and Policy Issues. Journal of International Technology and Information Management

[33] Syamimi, S., Yussof, H., Ismail, L. I., Mohamed, S., Hanapiah, F. A., and Zaharid, N. I (2012) Initial Response in HRI- a Case Study on Evaluation of Child with Autism Spectrum Disorders Interacting with a Humanoid Robot NAO. Procedia Engineering (IRIS)

[34] Szabolcsi, R (2014) The Birth of the Term Robot. AiMT Advances in Military Technology Vol. 9, No. 1

[35] Wagner, J. DeCew (2015) The Feminist Critique of Privacy: Past Arguments and New Social Understandings, in Social Dimensions Of Privacy: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. (Beate Roessler & Dorota Mokrosinska eds.

[36] Warren, S. and Louis D. Brandeis, L. D. (1890) The Right to Privacy,” Harvard Law Review 4. https://doi.org/10.2307/1321160

[37] Westin, A. F (1968) Privacy And Freedom, 25 Wash. & Lee L. Rev.

[38] William, R (1999) The International Dictionary of AI. The Glenlake Publishing Company.

Metrics

792

Views

754

PDF views