[AnMa]

Please help me with my master theses and participate in my short survey about social robots! 
I need 50 participants from the USA! Thank you!! 

https://survey2.edu.uni-graz.at/651634/lang-en

[AndyGoode]

I'm not very happy about the survey, and I'm not very interested in any master's thesis on that topic. In my opinion you'd be better off researching privacy issues or pushing to actually create AGI instead of just talking about interface issues.

Some specific problems with the survey: (1) It omits one of the most important factors in my mind: whether the robot is going to transmit personal information (photos of my residence, audio recordings of my conversations, tracking of my whereabouts via GPS, etc.) to some unknown and potentially hostile outside party. That is an extreme safety/privacy concern nowadays. Who knows what other important attributes you might have omitted, if you hadn't even considered the issue I mentioned for the survey. (2) The meanings of some of your words are not clear. By "safety" do you include "safety from unauthorized transmission of personal information?" By "friendly" do you mean "user friendly" or rather "friendly in speech or mannerisms"?

Here are some videos to get you thinking about privacy concerns:

()
This is how Google is spying on everything you do

The Hated One
Published on Oct 6, 2018
()
Why you should cover your laptop camera

Tech Insider
Published on Jul 8, 2016
()
Is your SmartTV spying on you?

CBS News
Published on Feb 10, 2015
()
Why I ditched my smartphone

ScottiesTech.Info
Published on Feb 20, 2018

[HS]

I have to agree with Andy here, but at the same time I know how educational institutions can be. I'll lecture at you, you repeat back to me, anything else is seen as out of place, beyond the normal perview. So go ahead, ask the deep questions, its fun if nothing else. Otherwise education will tend to suck the joy from your most cherished interests.

[AndyGoode]

If AnMa has time and is interested, I am willing to post many alternative ideas that I believe would be much better for a master's thesis.

P.S.--Some more videos regarding electronic privacy:

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NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden: 'I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things'

The Guardian
Published on Jul 9, 2013
()
Welcome to America's biggest spy center

The Big Picture RT
Published on May 8, 2012
()
Robotic Vacuum Cleaner May Be Sucking Up Your Household's Private Information

KPIX CBS SF Bay Area
Published on Jul 25, 2017
()
No Privacy with Smart Meters | Big Brother Watch

breakingtheset
Published on Feb 28, 2013

[Art]

Anma,

It is generally not allowed for anyone or company to ask most of those "mandatory" questions contained within your survey. My gender, race, religion, etc. are actually none of your business nor do I feel it is germane or pertinent to the gist of your survey.

A lot of us who still place a value on our individual privacy will recoil at such open attempts to circumvent our basic beliefs.

Good luck on amassing the required survey patrons to assist you in furthering your education. I think there might be some take away here as well.

 

[WriterOfMinds]

Asking about race, gender, and other demographic information on surveys (for any topic) is pretty standard.  It's important for finding out whether there are differences of opinion between women and men etc.  Since the responses are anonymous, the info is not connected to your identity and there's no invasion of privacy.

Asking those questions in job interviews is not allowed because the info could be used to discriminate against the interviewee.  That problem does not apply here.

[WriterOfMinds]

Okay, I took the survey.  AnMa, I rather suspect that you can't make changes to it now, and you may not be interested in unsolicited feedback.  But just in case ... I had trouble answering a number of the questions, because the external appearance of the robots is the only information I'm given, and that tells me NOTHING about whether they have emotions, can make plans, etc.  I put down "not at all" for a lot of things because there wasn't any "don't know" option.  The Roomba got my best answers because I know something about a Roomba's capabilities.  You may find that your results vary widely based on survey participants' background knowledge, and unfortunately you did not include a question ("How familiar are you with this robot model?") to control for that variable.

@AndyGoode I think your electronic privacy concerns fall under the heading of whether the robots are "trustworthy" or "untrustworthy."  Though without getting more information than just their appearance it is hard to give a good answer there.