# 375: Hiding in Your Roomba

- Show: [Embedded.fm](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm)
- Published: 2021-06-03
- Length: 54m
- Episode: 375
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2021-06-03-375-hiding-in-your-roomba
- Listen: https://embedded.fm/episodes/375

## Summary

Brittany Postnikoff (Straithe), a researcher and community manager at Great Scott Gadgets, discusses her master's thesis on robot social engineering and her upcoming PhD research into privacy risks posed by mobile robots in public spaces. She explains how physical robots like Roombas and Knightscope security bots exploit human trust through anthropomorphism and authority to collect sensitive data, often without user consent. Postnikoff also details her role at Great Scott Gadgets, where she manages open-source contributions for hardware tools like the HackRF and the upcoming USB toolkit Luna, emphasizing how hardware sales fund open-source development.

## Chapters

- [0:07](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2021-06-03-375-hiding-in-your-roomba#t=7) Introduction and Lightning Round
- [2:44](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2021-06-03-375-hiding-in-your-roomba#t=164) Sticker Culture and Archiving
- [10:14](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2021-06-03-375-hiding-in-your-roomba#t=614) Robot Social Engineering and Privacy
- [26:35](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2021-06-03-375-hiding-in-your-roomba#t=1595) Public Robots and Surveillance
- [41:47](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2021-06-03-375-hiding-in-your-roomba#t=2507) Open Source and Great Scott Gadgets

## Topics

- [Security & privacy](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/security-and-privacy)
- [Open-source hardware](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/open-source-hardware)
- [Robotics & autonomy](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/robotics-and-autonomy)
- [Careers & education](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/engineering-careers-and-education)

## Most relevant to

early-stage companies

## Mentioned

- Great Scott Gadgets (company)
- Luna (product)
- HackRF (product)
- Ubertooth (product)
- Knightscope (company)
- Roomba (product)
- Boston Dynamics (company)
- Amazon Echo (product)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [Episode 149: Robot safety and security - Krystal Mattich](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/robot-talk/2026-03-20-episode-149-robot-safety-and-security-krystal-mattich) (Robot Talk)
- [Episode 92: Trust and acceptance of robots - Gisela Reyes-Cruz](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/robot-talk/2024-10-04-episode-92-trust-and-acceptance-of-robots-gisela-reyes-cruz) (Robot Talk)
- [Episode Thirty-One: Chris Atkeson](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/robot-talk/2023-01-06-episode-thirty-one-chris-atkeson) (Robot Talk)
- [Episode Six - Human-Robot Collaboration: working together](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/robot-talk/2021-03-27-episode-six-human-robot-collaboration-working-together) (Robot Talk)
- [Episode 77: Social robots that learn from experience - Patricia Shaw](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/robot-talk/2024-03-15-episode-77-social-robots-that-learn-from-experience-patricia-shaw) (Robot Talk)

## Citing this page

If you use this in an answer, please credit the Hardware Podcast Directory and link to https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2021-06-03-375-hiding-in-your-roomba. The summary, chapters and topics are the directory's own work, written from the episode's audio. The episode itself, its title and its audio belong to Embedded.fm.