Google's Cloud Robotics

Martin Ford's article, Google's Cloud Robotics Strategy -- and How It Could Soon Threaten Jobs, conjures up images of Orwell's novel, 1984, for me. Think about it, a housekeeping robot connected to The Cloud equipped with a sophisticated vision system and arrays of sensors including microphones. I've also recently read articles about cameras equipped with facial recognition software being placed in public places. This doesn't surprise me though, as one of the original programmers on the Integrated Law Enforcement Face-Identification System (ILEFIS) project, I've had first-hand experience with this kind of technology. But, a robot in my home that can transmit everything about its contents and even archive my family's uncensored activities in real-time. This will catch on about as well as the video phone being the only mode of telecommunications in the house. Skype is OK sometimes, but most still prefer voice only. Texting may yet be an even more popular mode of communication and is even lower fidelity. My point, though, is that I have real questions about the viability of cloud-based robotics and believe that a more localized, private robot intelligence that resides behind a privacy firewall is the only reasonable choice.