A number of Roomba testers say they feel as though they have been 'misled' after a series of images of them taken by the devices were posted to Facebook.
Roomba manufacturer iRobot had been putting their device through a series of tests to help the little gizmo identify and understand what it's looking at.
People took test models of Roombas into their own home where they captured a series of images which were sent off to data testers for labelling, developing the Roomba AI's ability to recognise objects around it.
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However, some of these images, including one of a woman on the toilet were taken by people paid to look through the data and posted to closed groups on Facebook.
An investigation by MIT Technology Review into how iRobot trains their artificial intelligence has prompted several Roomba testers to come forward with concerns about how their data and personal images were used.
They spoke to Greg, who chose not to reveal his full name due to signing a non-disclosure agreement with iRobot, as he said he'd tested all sorts of products throughout the years.
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He agreed to allow a test version of iRobot's Roomba J series into his home where it would scoot around and take pictures to improve its artificial intelligence, and would tell iRobot what his own experience was like.
What he believes he didn't agree to was for the images the Roomba took inside his home to be sent onto a third party where someone could look through the pictures, and as it turns out screenshot some for their own use and distribution.
He's not the only one to have concerns about the way the test was done, as MIT Technology Review say 'nearly a dozen' Roomba testers have contacted them since their investigation to say they had concerns about the way their data was handled.
The images and footage taken by the test Roombas was sent by iRobot to California based company Scale AI, which employs contractors around the world to look through data and label the things in the images.
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A team of workers in Venezuela tasked with labelling objects in images of people's homes, sometimes with people in the picture with their faces visible, ended up sharing at least 15 images taken by the Roombas onto Facebook.
Pictures included an image of a child and one with a woman on the toilet, which were screenshotted by these workers and shared in private groups on the social media site.
When contacted for comment, iRobot told us all of the Roombas involved in this incident were test models which were not the same as versions available for the public to buy, with labels on the robots clearly stating that they were recording footage.
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They said: "The images are from development robots used by paid data collectors and employees in 2020.
"Data collectors are informed and acknowledge how the data will be collected. In some cases, development robots are modified with software and hardware expressly for data collection to support machine learning efforts."
They also said they terminated their work with Scale AI once they became aware of the data leak and has 'stringent measures in place governing how it manages the data collected from research development robots'.
iRobot said they were currently reviewing their testing process to work out if they need to make some changes in the future.
Topics: Technology, News
Joe Harker