Influence of the Privacy Issue in the Deployment and Design of Networking Robots in European Urban Areas

In this article we analyze how the privacy issue will affect in the deployment and design of Networking Robots in European urban areas. Privacy means the way to guarantee self control on private data that can be processed by the Networked Robots. We start analyzing the technical capabilities of networked robots in public and private spaces, the legal framework and technical solutions. Then we present the main European Directives and how they affect in the Networked Robots. Next we go in the legal criteria for privacy compliance analyzing the surveillance utilities and the wireless communication systems. We also discuss the current legal framework for ubiquitous computing and analyze the anonymous processing for mobility management purposes using the Bluetooth scanning sensor. Finally we present some open questions