Amazon’s Astro may be cute, but security experts warn of privacy concerns

Amazon’s new robot is designed to roam your home and serve as a staunch surveillance droid. Named Astro, the bot will keep tabs on an aging family member and warn you if the stove is inadvertently left on. You never have to worry about the bot’s focus; Astro can’t be distracted by a big steak.

With big round flashing eyes, Astro is reminiscent of Pixar’s Wall-E and just as cute. But privacy experts say consumers should be aware that those eyes may not be real, but they will always be looking.

“One of my big fears about this new wave of technology that [Amazon has] triggered this week is that it will introduce larger-scale data collection, “says Matthew Guariglia, policy analyst for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.” Who knows what data they might collect from a robot moving through your House ?

Saving the limelight until the end of its hour-long fall product event, Amazon unveiled the Astro on Tuesday. The robot, available by invitation only at the moment, costs $ 1,000. The price will drop to $ 1,450 when it is released more widely.

Amazon says the smart home robot, a sort of Alexa on wheels, can monitor security, keep an eye out for young family members, and be there for anything you might need for Alexa, like voice control of your lights. The bot is operated through an application that also receives alerts from Astro. The app is also used to drive the robot and see what it sees.

While Astro serves as a test of whether we want robots to run in our homes, it’s also another example of an Amazon product pushing the boundaries of privacy and raising questions about the pros and cons of heightened surveillance. It’s not even the first Amazon product designed to move around your home. Last year, the retail giant unveiled its Camera always at home, a flying Ring security camera.

Guariglia says that with the Always Home camera, he’s not too concerned with data collection because the drone, which is expected to go on sale later this year, is designed to travel predetermined paths around a house. It cannot be viewed and controlled remotely.

That’s not the case with Astro, which takes home surveillance to a new level. Being able to pilot the bot is a game-changer, Guariglia says, giving Amazon more opportunities to collect data. It also potentially gives the police a new way of seeing inside your home.

Law enforcement can already issue a search warrant on Amazon – not you – to access data recorded by fixed devices like Les Echos and Web cameras. In fact, according to Amazon’s latest semi-annual information requests report, law enforcement agencies around the world have filed a total of 30,000 information requests, including subpoenas, warrants and warrants. court orders, with the company in the first six months of this year.

If a warrant covered an Astro, Guariglia says, the bot could theoretically become a mobile surveillance device for law enforcement.

Like any other connected device, Astro is another opportunity for cybercriminals to compromise the bot and steal its data.

Amazon maintains that user privacy is key to Astro’s design and claims that much of its data processing is done on the device itself. Additionally, users can designate “out of bounds” areas of the home that Astro is not allowed to enter. Users can also manually turn off their cameras and microphones whenever they want.

Plus, an easy-to-see light indicates when Astro is streaming audio or video to the cloud. And only a mobile device that has been associated with Astro and logged into the same Amazon account can be used to access the robot’s live camera feed and Astro app remotes.

Amazon released a statement Friday saying that customer trust is its “top priority”, which is why Astro, like its other products, is built with “multiple layers of privacy and security controls to protect customer information.” .

Motherboard, a tech news site, received internal documents about the project and spoke to someone who worked on Astro. This person, who has not been named in the story, called Astro “a disaster that is not ready to be released”. The person also said the robot was a “privacy nightmare”.

It’s up to individual consumers to decide whether they want to trade privacy for convenience, says Jen Caltrider, who manages the Mozilla Foundation’s Privacy Not Included guide, which documents the privacy practices of major consumer products. .

In recent years, Amazon has improved its security practices, such as strengthening encryption and adding more processing to the device, Caltrider explains. But the same cannot be said for privacy.

“They’re pretty slippery when they say one thing and then act questionably,” Caltrider says. “I don’t trust them and I wouldn’t recommend others to trust them.”

For example, Amazon says that if you ask, it will remove the Echo record of asking Amazon to order hemorrhoid cream. But he will always keep a record of your order of this cream.

And consumers often need to go through Amazon customer service to have a recording deleted, which can be overwhelming, she says. On top of that, this process is sometimes complicated if it’s not clear which Amazon privacy policy applies – Amazon, Ring, and other brands have separate ones. Government privacy regulations, such as GDPR in the European Union and the California Consumer Privacy Act, should also be considered.

“I would be surprised if Amazon fully understands how its entire privacy ecosystem connects,” Caltrider says.