A Taiwan-based man has been jailed for five months after secretly filming his wife's affair using the camera on their holiday home's robot vacuum cleaner, in a case that highlights the tension between exposing infidelity and protecting personal privacy. He had grown suspicious after finding an unfamiliar toothbrush and reviewing CCTV footage showing another man dropping his wife home, then remotely activated the vacuum's camera by accident while trying to use its audio function, capturing footage of the couple naked together.

The husband used the footage as evidence in divorce proceedings, initially winning just over £11,600 in damages after a civil court ruled his wife's conduct had "gone beyond the bounds of friendship" — far short of the roughly £46,600 he had sought. However, his wife then brought a separate criminal case against him for invading her privacy, and the court rejected his argument that the evidence's acceptance in civil proceedings should shield him, ruling that marital obligations do not override an individual's right to privacy, and noting the device's sounds and lights were too faint to have warned her she was being recorded. He was sentenced to five months in prison and ordered to pay his ex-wife nearly £3,500.