China's Roborock examines in Korea for potential data leaks

The private data guideline of Roborock, in which the personal information of its subscribers prone to Chinese partners or third parties, has repeated the security phobia of Chinese electronics.

The Korea's personal information protection commission announced on Tuesday that it would start an examination for the collection and administration of personal information from Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics', Xiaomi, Ecovacs and Robots Robot vacuum cleaners.

“We are planning to carry out a preliminary review of the collection and use of person information through robot vacuum cleaners that process data such as video and audio from data subjects [IoT] Technology, ”said the state -supported agency in a publication on Tuesday.

The commission is moved after Roborock, the No. 1 player on the Korean robot vacuum cleaner market, was given up due to a clause in the data protection guideline published on its website that the private information of its email subscribers could be shared with Chinese connected companies or third-party companies.

“We can occasionally pass on your personal data to third parties to provide the products or services you requested,” says the guidelines on your official website.

“Openings can be made to third-party service providers to third-party providers and connected companies.”

When asked about such clauses in a recent press release event, said Dan Cham, Roborock's marketing manager for the APAC region, said that the company recognizes the potential that the clauses can be interpreted in different ways and that it should not be checked how the wording should not be changed and that it has not stored any user information on the data platform called Tuya since 2020.

With increasing consumer goods, Roboroc made an official explanation in which it strictly met the security measures in Korea.

“We encrypt all the data that is sent to servers and the latest TLS protocol is used,” says the instruction.

“With regard to data collected by the vacuum cleaner such as video data and audio data, you are not saved on the server. With regard to the Korean market, we strictly adopt the Korean laws and do not provide user data to third parties without user consent or unless otherwise determined by Korean regulations. ”

With the further development of the technology, robot vacuum cleaners, which are used with AI cameras and self-driving technologies, are increasingly suspect of data leaks because they could store stacks of videos and images that contain some of the private information from houses. The fear of consumers has expanded the fact that leading market participants such as Roborock and Ecovacs come from China, which has an unreliable success record in the treatment of private information.

By Jin Eun-Soo [[email protected]]