I just watched the product video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj1t3msy8dc), and it's clear that surveillance is not a stealthy component, but the only function this device actually has: Despite a $1000 sales tag, they didn't even bother putting a vacuum in their robot.
Amazon's main target audience is suburban helicopter moms who want to snoop on their kids, and I doubt that privacy is a major concern to them.
Wish they would have bought Aibo, much cuter. would love to be able to program an open robotics platform, sony is still very locked down, remote-server-in-the-loop