My partner and I are getting a cat and consider getting a robot vacuum cleaner for our apartment to help keep it clean. Up until now, I’ve been against getting one due to privacy concerns and negative reports about certain manufacturers (e.g., iRobot/Roomba). Now I’m reevaluating, because my partner is sensitive to dust, and regular vacuuming will be a must.

Does anyone have any experience or recommendations about manufacturers or models with a light privacy footprint or good reputation on that front?

I am aware that most robots that actually work will also gather data, and newer models even incorporate photo/video to improve pattern recognition performance. Still, I would be more comfortable with one that does that within reason (e.g., collects as little data as possible, transfers as little as possible to remote servers, encrypts data for transfer and storage).