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Popular Sex Toy Caught Sending Intimate Data To Manufacturer (fusion.net)
In a world where thermostats, and smart locks can be hacked, and companies covertly record information, why should sex toys remain unaffected. Fusion is reporting that the We-Vibe 4 Plus, a popular vibrator sends a range of intimate data to its manufacturer. The sex toy uses a smartphone app, which lets a use control the vibration among other things. From the report: When the device is in use, the We-Vibe 4 Plus uses its internet connectivity to regularly send information back to its manufacturer, Standard Innovations Corporation. It sends the device's temperature every minute, and lets the manufacturer know each time a user changes the device's vibration level. The company could easily figure out some seriously intimate personal information like when you get off, how long it takes, and with what combinations of vibes. This was revealed on Friday at hacker conference Defcon in Las Vegas by two security researchers, who wish to be called only by their handles @gOldfisk and @rancidbacon. The two examined the app's code and the information being sent by the device over Bluetooth. In a statement sent by email, Standard Innovation Corporation's president Frank Ferrari confirmed that the company collects this information. [...]
" seriously intimate personal information like when you get off, how long it take"
Most Slashdotters already have information like this collected by their ISP ;-)
If you post as Anonymous Coward, don't expect a reply.
Which way is the transparency?
To the customer, by making it plain Big Brother is watching their orgasms?
To the company, as in "OK. Delilah in Kansas City likes Echo Mode at 5.7Hz. Why don't we start offering pre-customized models which have all the user's preferences pre-programmed? For a fee, of course."
If you can get over the fact it's about sex, it's actually a pretty good collection of metrics to collect when you're looking to get the best performance out of your product.
They'll take that data and use it to improve future products to better get you off /with science/
Also could provide pretty good data for legit scientific study - It can be hard to get funding to study taboo subjects.
Of course, this all needs to be clearly stated in a privacy policy and data should be anonymized.. That's the real fuck-up here.
Is nothing sacred anymore?
In a word, "no".
I'm the customer, not the product.
In this case, you're both.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Okay, so they capture completely non-personally-identifiable information... so?
They log how often the user changes vibration settings. This seems like clear product improvement data. Remove lesser-used settings and utilize the information on how frequently the settings are changed to create an auto-program that mimics that alternation.
They capture the temperature. This seems like possible safety data, if nothing else.
If it activated the microphone to record the ambient "noise", you'd have a clear case of 'catching' someone sending data. Does it send the phone's device ID? I didn't see it in the summary. So I'm genuinely not seeing what's inherently wrong with wanting to understand how products are used and could improve, especially in the burgeoning sexual-health industry.
[DISCLAIMER: This post is a work of satire and should not be misconstrued as a holy text upon which to base a religion.]
Are we really nothing more than market research tools and products to be sold to the highest bidder anymore?
No, we're not, and it's our own damn fault. People are flocking to anything that promises them anything in return for their data. Privacy is a non-issue. Even close friends to whom I explained the technology and how it's used against them don't take the slightest precautions. People who should know better practice full on data exhibitionism. This war is lost. Too many old geeks have defected, and the new generation grew up with this stuff, so it's normal to them. Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
Right, this is an item which you pay for. People defending all this invasion of privacy often say that the point is to get things for free. In practice, however, I have found that free things are more likely to respect your privacy. This is especially true of software. Take, for example, Android apps for GPS navigation. Garmin Navigon costs $49 (last I looked) which is expensive for an Android app. It wants access to all kinds of things which don't seem necessary for it's function. They have an excuse for access to the camera. It's to tell you if you are driving in the correct lane. I don't know what their excuse is for needing access to your contacts list. In contrast, the free app, Mapfactor Navigator, only asks for access to the things you would expect and it has a much better privacy policy.