China's Roborock, the number one company in the domestic robot vacuum market, recently addressed the controversy regarding user information leaks, stating, "We strictly comply with Korean laws and do not provide user data to third parties without user consent."
On the 26th, Roborock emphasized in a statement, "The video data and audio data collected by the robot vacuum are not stored on the server." It added, "The image data for obstacle avoidance is stored only within the robot vacuum, so users do not need to worry about external leaks of that data."
Recently, as the AI model of the Chinese startup DeepSeek has been banned in several countries due to concerns over information leaks, the controversy regarding the data leaks of Chinese robot vacuums, including Roborock and Ecovacs, has spread in the domestic market, prompting an official clarification.
Earlier, last year, there were several hacking incidents involving Ecovacs' robot vacuum 'Deebot X2s', which made insulting sounds in the home of a consumer in Minnesota, USA. Roborock faced controversy over terms allowing the sharing of Korean user personal information with the Chinese IoT corporation 'Hangzhou Tuya Information Technology'.
In response, Roborock stated, "We apply the latest TLS (Transport Layer Security) encryption technology to encrypt all data transmitted to the server." It also noted, "Users can delete and manage image data at any time, allowing them to autonomously control their personal information."
Roborock is actively responding to the controversy over personal information leaks because competition is intensifying as Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are entering the robot vacuum market in earnest. In the difficult Korean market for foreign corporations, Roborock recorded a market share of around 40% in the domestic robot vacuum market as of last year. Since entering the Korean market in 2020, Roborock's domestic sales have increased by more than 200% each year, surpassing 200 billion won in 2023. The total domestic sales recorded until the first half of last year reached 142 billion won.
Roborock plans to target the Korean appliance market by introducing not only robot vacuums but also a variety of other appliances. Company representatives said, "We will review our personal information protection policies in cooperation with a Korean legal advisory firm and continue to improve them."