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China's Roborock under investigation in Korea for potential data leaks

Published: 05 Mar. 2025, 18:53 Updated: 07 Mar. 2025, 11:35

JIN EUN-SOO
[email protected]

Roborock launched its latest S9 MaxV Ultra and S9 MaxV Slim robot vacuum cleaners in Korea. [YONHAP]

Roborock's private data policy stating that personal information of its subscribers is prone to be shared with Chinese affiliates or third parties has reignited security-related phobia of Chinese electronics.

Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission announced Tuesday that it would launch an audit into the collection and management of personal information from Samsung Electronics', LG Electronics', Xiaomi's, Ecovacs' and Roborock's robot vacuum cleaners.

“We plan to conduct a preliminary inspection of the collection and use of person information by robot vacuum cleaners, which process data such as video and audio from data subjects amid a surge in the sales of home appliances utilizing Internet of Things [IoT] technology,” the state-backed agency said in a release Tuesday.

The commission's move comes after Roborock, the No. 1 player in Korea's robot vacuum cleaner market, came under fire for a clause in the privacy policy disclosed on its website that says the private information of its email subscribers could be shared with Chinese affiliates or third-party companies.

“We may disclose your personal information, on occasion, to third parties to provide the products or services that you have requested,” the policy states on its official website.

“Disclosures may be made to third-party service providers and affiliated companies.”

When asked about such clauses at a recent press event, Dan Cham, Roborock's head of marketing for the APAC region, said the company acknowledges the potential for the clauses to be interpreted in different ways and that it is reviewing how to change the wording, adding that it has not saved any user information on its data platform called Tuya since 2020.

With consumer concerns rising, Roborock issued an official statement saying it was strictly complying with security measures in Korea.

“We encrypt all data sent to servers utilizing the latest TLS protocol,” the statement read.

“In regards to data collected by the vacuum cleaner, such as video data and audio data, they are not saved on the server. Regarding the Korean market, we strictly comply with Korean laws and do not provide user data to third parties without user consent or unless otherwise stipulated by Korean regulations.”

With advancement of technology, robot vacuum cleaners, which are deployed with AI-powered cameras and self-driving technology, have increasingly become suspects of data leakage, as they could be saving up piles of videos and pictures that contain some of the most private information from homes. The fact that leading players in the market, such as Roborock and Ecovacs, are from China, which has an unreliable track record when it comes to treating private information, has expanded consumer anxiety.

BY JIN EUN-SOO [[email protected]]