## 9 Discussion

Table 4: _Cont._Law review, it explains that privacy is a way to protect an individual's personal space and their right not to be intruded on and to be left alone [69]. Later, the authors of [70] elaborated privacy as an aspect of one's dignity, autonomy, and ultimately the practising of freedom. Meanwhile, in this technology-driven data world, privacy is a way to control, safeguard, and protect one's information. In one way or another, privacy is all about protecting individual rights. In the universal declaration of human rights, as described in [71] by the UN (www.un.org, accessed on 12 January 22), article 12 states 'No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks'. The revised GDPR act and related information, which is available in [72] aims to collect, use, share, and process personal data securely and with consent. Privacy in an assistive robotic multimodal system is critical, because it is linked with ethical, legal, social, and even political issues, because it deals with personal private data, and its acceptance and adoption depend on privacy. Thus, to adhere to the privacy rights declared by the UN and follow the GDPR privacy policy of the EU/UK, a robotic system needs to be designed and developed with privacy in mind. However, in this digital era, each country and each jurisdiction have their own privacy laws and regulations. The robotic system needs to comply with a varying privacy requirements, to be adopted and acceptable across boundaries, which is a daunting task. _Data and System Security:_ In a multimodal assistive robotic system, interaction with the users is conducted using different methods and various channels. Engagement and interaction with the users are performed through videos (visual display or recording of actions and activities, etc. ), speech (audio recordings, conversations, or announcements), a tablet (on-board the robot), a remote app (phone or tablet), signs, gestures, or movement, etc. This multimodal communication could lead to leakage and exposure of information in multiple ways, to unintended and unauthorised individuals, due to the active engagement of multiple sensors and interfaces with the user all at the same time. The engagement of the user and the robot within a given space can be easily intercepted by any individual if they are close to them. Therefore, the engagement of the robot with the user would be affected by who is around the user and by events; e.g., what, when, and how to respond should be based on the nature of the data or request received from the user(s) and the presence of other individuals and the events surrounding the user. It is vital to understand the surrounding environment of the user (any people around, who are these people, age, gender), the situation of the user (sick, medication time, hurt), the needs of the user (service based on what he/she wants), and the activity of the user (exercising, refreshing, eating), so that the multiple sensory data prompt the robotic system to respond in such a way that the user's security and privacy is preserved and well protected, both from the robotic system itself (when necessary) and other individuals (any random individuals, carers, doctor, family, etc. ), depending on the need, access rights, and support requirements. The reason why user privacy should even be protected from the robot in some instances is due to the fact that, after the robotic system captures the events to be recorded, they can be accessed and viewed by certain authorised individuals to whom the user may not want to allow access, due to the nature of the activity; for example, private life: bathing, going to the toilet, and other private activities (e.g., when naked etc.) should not be recorded by the robot, unless the user's life and health and wellbeing are at risk while performing those activities.