Your Roborock maps your home with LiDAR — centimetre-accurate floor plans showing every room, every piece of furniture, every doorway. That map goes to the cloud. Roborock is headquartered in Beijing. China's National Intelligence Law means the Chinese government can legally compel Roborock to hand over any data it holds. Roborock has moved some servers to AWS and Europe — but the company's legal obligation to Beijing doesn't change based on where the server sits. A detailed floor plan of your home, held by a company legally answerable to Chinese intelligence. Your robot vacuum knows the layout of your home, what's on your floors, when you're home and when you aren't, and your Wi-Fi network details. The app asks for your precise location. The vacuum builds a centimetre-accurate map. The camera catalogs your belongings. The cleaning schedule reveals your daily routine. Roborock shares data with third parties for "service improvement" and analytics. A device you bought to clean your floors builds a dossier: where you live, what you own, when your house is empty. That dossier is shared with unnamed third parties for purposes described as "improvement.".
What they claim: Roborock's privacy policy says it collects data "necessary for providing and improving" its services.
What we found: The Roborock app requests permissions including precise location, Wi-Fi network information, and Bluetooth access. The vacuum itself collects room dimensions, cleaning schedules (revealing when you're home and when you're not), obstacle data, and device inventory via its camera. Combined, this creates a detailed profile: where you live, the layout of your home, your daily schedule, and what objects are in each room. Roborock shares data with third parties for "service improvement" and advertising analytics. A cleaning robot that builds a dossier on your home, your schedule, and your belongings.
What they claim: Roborock states it "takes data security seriously" and that map data is "encrypted and stored securely."
What we found: Roborock vacuums generate detailed floor plans of your home using LiDAR — centimetre-accurate maps showing room dimensions, furniture placement, doorways, and obstacles. The Roborock app sends this data to cloud servers. Security researcher Dennis Giese (the same researcher who exposed Ecovacs) has documented that Roborock devices communicate with servers in China. While Roborock has moved some cloud infrastructure to AWS and European servers, the company itself is headquartered in Beijing and subject to China's National Intelligence Law. The combination of LiDAR-accurate home mapping and Chinese jurisdiction creates the same structural concern as Ecovacs.
What they claim: Roborock markets its S8 MaxV as featuring "advanced AI obstacle avoidance" with an on-device camera.
What we found: The Roborock S8 MaxV and similar models include front-facing cameras for obstacle recognition. Roborock states camera images are processed on-device and not uploaded. However, the same researchers who exposed Ecovacs' photo uploads noted that verifying on-device processing claims is extremely difficult without a full firmware audit — and no such audit has been published for Roborock. The camera can recognise objects including shoes, cables, pet waste, and socks. A camera that can identify objects in your home has the technical capability to identify much more. The "processed on-device" claim is a policy choice, not a technical limitation, and can change with a firmware update.