Does your electronic butler owe you a duty of confidentiality?

As artificial intelligence (AI) advances the legal issues have not progressed in step and principles that exist have become outdated in a relatively short time. Privacy is a major concern and the myriad of devices that store data for wide ranging purposes risk breaches of privacy. Treating such a breach as a design defect or technical fault, does not reflect the complexities of legal liability that apply to robotics. Where advanced levels of AI are involved, such as with electronic butlers and carers used increasingly to assist vulnerable and ageing populations, the question of whether a robot owes a duty of confidentiality to the person for whom they are caring is becoming ever more pertinent. This question is considered in detail and it is concluded that a duty may be owed in some cases. After a brief introduction (I.) the article picks up on the aspects of legal agency and AI (II.) and examines robots as social beeings (III.), their relation- ship to duty (IV.) as well as their capacity as "extended cognition" (V.). These aspects are then brought in con- text with issues of data protection (VI.) and the general relationship between civil law, ethics and robotics (VII.) before conclusions (VIII.) are drawn.