A man in Taiwan used a robot vacuum cleaner to record his wife’s alleged affair, but was jailed for five months after a court ruled he violated her privacy.
IN a bid to uncover his wife’s extramarital affair, a man in Taiwan allegedly used a robot vacuum cleaner to gather evidence, only to end up with a jail sentence for invading her privacy.
According to a recently released court ruling, the man married his wife in 2021 and purchased a holiday home with her, the South China Morning Post reported, citing local media reports.
In 2023, the man reportedly found a used toothbrush at the holiday home, which made him suspicious. After checking surveillance footage from the property, he allegedly saw his wife accompanied by an unknown man.
Taking matters into his own hands, the man decided to use the robotic vacuum cleaner at the holiday home three months later. He operated it through an application and used its built-in audio feature to communicate with his wife.
While the robot vacuum was in operation, its live feed allegedly captured the man’s wife being intimate with another man. In an attempt to support his legal claim, the man reportedly recorded the encounter.
He subsequently used the robot vacuum footage as evidence to file a lawsuit against his wife and her alleged affair partner, seeking NT$2 million (RM255,421) in damages for infidelity.
The man won the civil case, with the court ordering his wife and her alleged lover to pay him NT$500,000 (RM63,855) after ruling that the wife’s relationship with the other man had reportedly “surpassed the limits of ordinary friendship”.
However, the civil court ruling did not shield the husband from criminal proceedings over how he obtained the evidence. His wife later counter-sued him, accusing him of recording her without her consent.
The man argued in court that his actions were legally “justified” following the civil court ruling. However, his defence was rejected on the grounds that a marital relationship does not override a person’s right to privacy.
The court reportedly determined that the recording had been made deliberately.
It also found that alerts from the robotic vacuum were insufficient to establish that the wife was aware she was being recorded or had consented to the recording.
The man was sentenced to five months in prison and fined NT$150,000 (RM19,158) for illegally recording private encounters.
Under Taiwanese law, secretly recording or disclosing another person’s private activities without consent can carry a prison sentence of up to three years and a fine of up to NT$300,000 (RM38,325).
