Boston Dynamics takes the protection of your data and the security of Spot robots (Spot) very seriously. Sensing the environment, making decisions on complex data, and transacting data over network links are fundamental to the function of advanced robots, so Spot was built from the ground up to keep that data secure. We believe that our commitment to your security and privacy should be a key reason for selecting Boston Dynamics and Spot as a partner in your robotics applications.

Spot is also a new product that is in rapid development to improve its performance. In order for us to find, understand, and fix issues, the automatic collection and transmission of some performance data is built into our Explorer-level Spot robots. We’re proud of our robots’ performance, but we continue to learn from the performance of Spot in some of the difficult or dirty terrain in which our customers deploy Spot. This data sharing is an integral part of the Spot Explorer product. Enterprise-level Spot customers can opt-out at the risk that issues with their robots and applications will only be visible to the product improvement team through direct interaction with customer support.

 

Boston Dynamics can receive data from Spot in two ways:

Service Logs

Service logs are used for deep technical analysis of a specific issue on Spot. When you contact Support they will likely ask you to go to the ‘logs’ page on your robot and download one of a Triage, Autonomy, or Controls log. These contain raw sensor data and details on how Spot interprets this data for the period of time you choose to download on the logs page. Logs will contain images unless Privacy Mode was activated at the time the data was collected. Without images, it’s usually not possible to diagnose perception-related issues, which may include loss of localization, collision with objects, and falls.

The completeness of log information is critical to being able to diagnose your issue. Because Service logs contain fine details of Spot’s internal systems, they are encrypted and not inspectable by anyone besides Boston Dynamics. You control what service logs are shared with Boston Dynamics. Only send log data that you’re comfortable being viewed by Boston Dynamics engineers.

 

Performance Logs

Performance logs are used by our product management and engineering teams to understand where to target reliability work and new features. Not every issue rises to the level of an explicit service request, so performance logs are gathered automatically, allowing us to measure the quality of your user experience, and better target our product improvement efforts.

Performance Logs are transmitted by our tablet application whenever an Internet connection is available and may contain the following data:

• Your robot’s serial number.
• Information about usage such as how long the robot has been operated, how far it walked, how many times it fell, how often a particular API was used. 
• When key events like powering on or fault detection occurred.
• Safety-related data such as collisions or falls.
• Usage of the controller application.
• High-level information about maps you collect, such as how many waypoints, how they’re connected, how well Spot understands where it is.
• Details about communications loss events.

Sending Performance Logs to Boston Dynamics is a required part of the Spot Explorer program, but can be disabled on Enterprise robots.

Video, image, audio, and detailed point cloud data are all excluded from our automatically transmitted Performance Logs. Your express action is required to transmit these data types.

 

 

How does Spot secure the data it works with?

Please see our Spot Security document for a full explanation.

 

Who will have access to my data?

Access to your data will be limited to Boston Dynamics customer support and individuals related to improving the product.

 

Under what circumstances is Spot data transmitted to Boston Dynamics?

Service Logs: Only when explicitly sent by you as part of a service request.
Performance Logs: Regularly and automatically, whenever the tablet is connected to the Internet.

 

Does Boston Dynamics retain my data?

Service Logs: Deleted six months after the date of upload to Boston Dynamics.
Performance Logs: Yes, this data is retained as long as it is necessary for performance improvements to Spot robots.

 

What if I don’t use the tablet or Android app with Spot?

If you have a Spot Explorer we’ll ask you for your Performance Log at license renewal time. At that point you will have to use Spot’s Android App to transfer the log before a new key will be issued.

 

Does Spot require Internet access?

No. In order to facilitate transmission of diagnostic data we do require you to periodically connect your tablet to the robot, which automatically transfers the data from the robot, and then connect that tablet to the Internet.

 

Can I inspect the data Spot sends?

Service Logs: No. Because this data contains details of the function of internal systems this data remains encrypted until examined by technicians at Boston Dynamics.
Performance Logs: Yes. Performance logs may be accessed through Spot’s API by you as the robot’s owner. Please see our documentation at dev.bostondynamics.com for information on how to access them. Performance logs relating to the tablet app may be retrieved directly from the device’s internal storage.

 

Last Updated on January 12, 2023.