Roomba, how could you?

found on Izismile

It's a funny pun, but some of those robot vacuums actually do send data about your home back to the manufacturer. 

Try not to scare the shit out of the robber

found on Imgur

I know what you're thinking - Why shouldn't you scare the shit out of the robber? The answer is quite simple. Robot vacuums and shit are a very bad combination

A password stealer no one would suspect

from here

Normally it's a login form that gets stuffed (and that would actually accomplish something), but why not stuff a Roomba, or even a turkey for that matter.

Leading a life of grime

from here

I think it's safe to say that virtually no one saw spy vacs coming, at least not that way. Your threat model might have included the vacuum having a vulnerability that let people break into your phone or your network or something, but a device with no microphone listening into ambient sounds is definitely thinking outside the box.

It's also a pretty useless threat model to a certain segment of the population, but maybe nobody wants to hear what those folks are saying anyways.

Thanks to Graham Cluley for bringing attention to this new wrinkle in the threat landscape.

The noise is coming from INSIDE THE HOUSE

from here and here (image source)

I'm sure the couple that mistook their robot vacuum for a home intruder are glad it was only a false alarm. I guess it was good practice in the event they ever do have a home intruder - or it'll train them to ignore the warning signs of a home intruder and they'll get a nasty surprise.