Robots for the family: protection of personal data and civil liability

Family law must necessarily engage with the evolution imposed by modern technologies. In particular, the entry into the domestic environment of more or less independent robots (ranging from integrated lighting and heating systems, to household cleaning robots, to robot-butler, robot caregivers or toy and educational robots, etc.) raises various legal issues. In fact, these new technological tools, due to the different degree of automation necessary for their own functioning, require the knowledge of an increasing amount of personal data. For example, an home automation system shall know the family's musical preferences and also the entry or exit times of all the residents; whereas robot caregivers might even get to know sensitive data regarding the health status and possible clinical pathologies of the end user. Because of the domestic use of these robots, and especially because of their use with and by minors, it is necessary to determine with absolute certainty the legal limits for their functioning, with reference, on the one hand, to the protection of the right to respect for private and family life and of privacy, and on the other hand to the possibility of civil liability for damages that robots, due to their own autonomy, could cause to the other family members and to other items or properties at home. Given the Italian regulatory vacuum on family robots, the applicable rules must be identified de jure condendo on the basis of both European and international sources of law (among others, the Regulation (EU) 2016/679, the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union) and the Italian case law to be applied by means of analogy.