Will robots know us better than we know ourselves?

This paper aims to highlight some conceptual aspects on the impact of robotics on our concept of privacy. In those areas where robotics applications will invade the privacy of individuals as computers or mobile phones do today, the current idea of privacy will no longer suffice to ensure the right level of people's protection. If we think to answer or stop the forthcoming controversies only relying on self-regulation of private parties, we will escape the real challenge: the next generation of robots does not affect solely persons and their individual rights, but the entire structure of society. This article assumes the robotics privacy relationship as a clear illustration of how the technology-society nexus should be regulated in the future. We need approaches that are contextual-normative and that should be politically addressed to the creation of a critical culture of technology. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.