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A Taiwanese man was sentenced to five months in prison for using a robot vacuum to record his wife's affair without consent.

A Taiwanese man was sentenced to five months in prison and fined approximately $5,000 after he used a robot vacuum to record his wife's intimate encounter with another man. The man, whose identity remains confidential, became suspicious of his wife's infidelity after discovering a stranger's toothbrush at their holiday home in September 2023. He also identified an unknown man in surveillance footage from a parking garage who had previously driven his wife home. To gather evidence for a civil lawsuit, the man remotely activated the robot vacuum's camera on December 24, 2023. He initially intended to use the audio feature to speak with his wife, but instead began recording the footage of her changing clothes and moving through the house unclothed with another man. While a civil court initially ruled in his favor, ordering his wife and her lover to pay him approximately $16,000 in damages for infringing on his marital rights, the criminal court ruled that his method of obtaining evidence was illegal. The court determined that marital obligations do not override a person's right to privacy, and the man was convicted for recording private images without authorization.

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