With the football World Cup about to begin in the US, one of the largest surveillance operations in the tournament’s history is also likely to get under way. Outdoor areas and stadium concourses at selected venues will be monitored by a complex system of 360-degree cameras, thermal sensors, microphones and AI-controlled anomaly detection. Small walking robots will turn stadiums and their surroundings into extensively monitored zones.
The machines are Spot robots, dog-like walking devices made by Boston Dynamics, a Hyundai subsidiary. First introduced in 2015, they have been continuously developed ever since. They move through the arriving crowds in a funny, dancing way and pose for selfies. Yet behind the cuteness lies a mobile sensor package with a broad range of surveillance capabilities.
The Privacy Question
Spot transmits video footage to security teams in real time. Although visitors may assume the dog-like robots are acting on their own, they do not operate autonomously. Operators sit at consoles, watch the live images and decide when an alarm is triggered or the police are called.
It remains unclear what happens to the data after the matches, how long recordings are stored or who, apart from the stadium security team, may later be able to access them. A video circulated on TikTok, which went viral and claimed that the robots could identify faces, briefly caused alarm. A Boston Dynamics spokesman denied the claim and said Spot had no facial recognition functions. According to the company, the robots merely report unauthorized people in restricted areas.
Critics note that a machine already capable of seeing in all directions, detecting heat and flagging anomalies in human behavior is, in essence, already an identification system that requires only a little more software to capture biometric data as well. Even now, the machine collects all the data needed for facial recognition.
Robot Patrols in Atlanta
It remains unclear what further purpose such robot dogs may serve once their civilian use at the football World Cup ends. Their deployment at an international sports tournament is therefore also a test case for public acceptance of the technology.
Once a dancing robot that records biometric data is treated as normal at a football match, its later use in shopping centers, transport hubs or on city streets will become much easier to justify. The recording is always running. The robot does not sleep.
Similar security robots were already known from Atlanta, where they patrol residential complexes and parking lots. They do not merely watch silently and transmit data. They can also issue spoken commands to residents and call the police.
The location of the operators remains unknown. Even control from abroad is possible. Data protection in such public-space deployments is likely to be more than questionable, since people can neither see who is watching them nor know what is being stored, how long it is being kept, who has access to the data and for what purpose.
From Selfies to Combat
The same four-legged machine that dances for World Cup selfies has long since been militarized in other countries. Footage from China shows armed robot units designed to be coordinated through a common control system.
Boston Dynamics presents Spot as a tool for hazardous situations and remote investigation. The robot is used, for example, to investigate chemical, biological or radiological threats and to locate, identify and render safe explosive devices. The cute version and the armed version use the same mobility and sensor technology. The only difference lies in a few technical modifications, different software and the client behind the operator.