ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how the mainstreaming of robots might specifically affect privacy. It breaks the effects of robots on privacy into three categories-direct surveillance, increased access, and social meaning-with the goal of introducing the reader to a wide variety of issues. The chapter points toward ways in which we might mitigate or redress the potential impact of robots on privacy, but acknowledges that, in some cases, redress will be difficult under the current state of privacy law. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act lays out the circumstances under which entities can disclose “electronic communications” to which they have access by virtue of providing a service. The chapter explores how our reactions to robots as social technologies implicate privacy in novel ways. It introduces a variety of ways in which robots may implicate the set of societal values loosely grouped under the term privacy.
