Amazon Astro Robot Price, Review and Reactions: Why New Home Robot Is Dangerous For Your Privacy

Want to buy an Amazon Astro Robot? Sure, it's an amazing robot, first of its kind, with state-of-the-art technology that should keep you and your house safe. However, be warned, both customers and experts are freaking out with their Amazon Astro Robot reviews.

Amazon's new robot, called Astro, is advertised as Alexa on wheels. It runs on a highly intuitive program, which recognizes people, monitors them, and gives owners "peace of mind." As a bonus, Astro has a lot of cameras for the job. Astro would be the perfect surveillance and helper robot!

Here is a Cnet video on the launch highlights for the Amazon Astro robot.

However, internet sources and tech experts advise against the new robot. Data miners reveal a heavily flawed system, privacy issues, and utterly underwhelming technology.

A Flawed Robot: Privacy Issues and the Amazon Astro Robot Stairs Problem

Vice leaked internal development documents for Astro technologies and software. Most of the data was taken from Motherboard and two unnamed sources who worked on the project.

It was revealed that Astro relies heavily on facial recognition and user behavior to recognize "homeowners" against "strangers" and whether or not it should take "investigation activity" against them. Astro will run patrols around the owner's home, diligently tracking and identifying people it encounters.

In a nutshell, the robot will observe your every move, try to memorize your face, and neatly categorize you between hostile and non-hostile. This applies to everybody inside the house together with Astro, so long as the robot remains active.

The source who worked on the project also said, "Astro is terrible and will almost certainly throw itself down a flight of stairs if presented the opportunity. The person detection is unreliable at best, making the in-home security proposition laughable."

Gizmodo was quick to point out that the system had no security measures against hacking attacks.

Customers should carefully consider if their privacy and money are worth the $999 Astro robot.

Consumer Review and Reactions on Amazon Astro Robot

Some notable tweets and consumer reactions were also spotted on Twitter.

User @keisisqrl retweeted The Verge's report, saying that "Amazon released a malfunctioning robot."

She also said she was willing to destroy the robot as "a public and personal service."

Another user summarizes the whole event with a morbid joke, "I mean, Yes... We're capturing all your data and will sell it without any sort of compensation to you... But at least the spy robot is cute, right?"

Twitter user @ChrisMephamRPG also said the robot was "cute in a intrusive way," which received a GIF reply.