Robohub.org
podcast
 

Privacy, Google, and Big Deals with Avner Levin


by
07 March 2014



share this:

What does it mean to have giants like Google, Apple and Amazon investing in robotics? Since last December, Google alone has acquired a handful of companies in robotics, home automation and artificial intelligence. This can be pretty exciting for robotics. But what exactly is the internet giant planning to do with this technology? Is there something we should be worried about? If there is, what can we do about it?

Experts have been actively talking about this in the media, including through Robohub’s recent focus series on Big Deals in Robotics.

In today’s episode, AJung Moon talks with Avner Levin, a privacy and cybercrime expert, about Google’s recent acquisition of companies. Levin sheds light on why we should be concerned about the recent series of acquisitions by the big companies from privacy and cybercrime perspective. He also discusses whether the existing privacy policies are ready to handle what may lie shortly ahead of us in the future — the future of the Internet of Things, or perhaps Google-branded robots.

Avner Levin
Avner Levin is the Chair of the Law & Business Department, as well as the Director of the Privacy and Cyber Crime Institute at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. His research interest is in regulation and protection of privacy with respect to technology within Canada and worldwide. In the interview, he advocates for more discussion of privacy issues to take place, not just within the companies that (do/will) hold our data, but by governing bodies.



tags: , , , , , ,


AJung Moon HRI researcher at McGill and publicity co-chair for the ICRA 2022 conference
AJung Moon HRI researcher at McGill and publicity co-chair for the ICRA 2022 conference





Related posts :



Robot Talk Episode 138 – Robots in the environment, with Stefano Mintchev

  19 Dec 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Stefano Mintchev from ETH Zürich about robots to explore and monitor the natural environment.

Artificial tendons give muscle-powered robots a boost

  18 Dec 2025
The new design from MIT engineers could pump up many biohybrid builds.

Robot Talk Episode 137 – Getting two-legged robots moving, with Oluwami Dosunmu-Ogunbi

  12 Dec 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Oluwami Dosunmu-Ogunbi from Ohio Northern University about bipedal robots that can walk and even climb stairs.

Radboud chemists are working with companies and robots on the transition from oil-based to bio-based materials

  10 Dec 2025
The search for new materials can be accelerated by using robots and AI models.

Robot Talk Episode 136 – Making driverless vehicles smarter, with Shimon Whiteson

  05 Dec 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Shimon Whiteson from Waymo about machine learning for autonomous vehicles.



 

Robohub is supported by:




Would you like to learn how to tell impactful stories about your robot or AI system?


scicomm
training the next generation of science communicators in robotics & AI


 












©2025.05 - Association for the Understanding of Artificial Intelligence