A Taiwanese man has been sentenced to five months in prison and fined more than $4,700 for using a robot vacuum cleaner to record his wife's extramarital affair. The sentence was handed down after the man was found to have violated his wife's privacy, despite winning a civil lawsuit against her and her lover.
The couple married in 2021 and reportedly lived with the husband's parents, also using a holiday home. In September 2023, the husband discovered a used toothbrush at the holiday home, prompting him to review security footage from a parking garage. This footage showed an unknown man driving his wife home.
Three months later, in December 2023, the husband remotely activated the couple's robot vacuum cleaner through a smartphone app. The live feed from the device revealed his wife engaging in intimate activities with another man. The recorded footage showed the wife changing clothes, embracing her lover, and appearing naked in the house, while the lover was seen on the sofa.
Following the discovery, the husband initiated a civil lawsuit against his wife and her lover, seeking approximately $68,000 in damages for infringement of his marital rights. The court ordered the couple's lovers to pay the husband $17,000 in compensation.
However, the wife subsequently countersued, accusing her husband of recording private footage without her consent. A court rejected the husband's defense that his actions were justified because the video evidence had already been accepted in the civil case. The husband maintained that his intention was not to record the affair specifically, but rather to confront his wife.
According to reports, any lights or voice alerts emitted by the robot vacuum were insufficient to alert the wife that she was being recorded. Taiwanese law stipulates that secretly recording another person or disclosing their private activities or intimate information without permission can lead to a prison sentence of up to three years and a fine exceeding $9,000.