Woman Sues Sex Toy App For Secretly Capturing Sensitive Information (ctvnews.ca)

A woman in Chicago filed a class action lawsuit against the makers of a smartphone-enabled vibrator, alleging their devices "secretly collect and transmit 'highly sensitive' information." CTV News reports: The lawsuit, which was filed earlier this month in an Illinois court, explains that to fully operate the device, users download the We-Connect app on a smartphone, allowing them and their partners remote control over the Bluetooth-equipped vibrator's settings... The suit alleges that unbeknownst to its customers, Standard Innovation designed the We-Connect app to collect and record intimate and sensitive data on use of the vibrator, including the date and time of each use as well as vibration settings...

It also alleges the usage data and the user's personal email address was transmitted to the company's servers in Canada. The statement of claim alleges the company's conduct demonstrates "a wholesale disregard" for consumer privacy rights and violated a number of state and federal laws.
Slashdot reader BarbaraHudson argues that "It kind of has to share that information if it's going to be remotely controlled by someone else." But the woman's lawsuit claims she wouldn't have bought the device if she'd known that while using it, the manufacturer "would monitor, collect and transmit her usage information."

Comments

Legal

[Maxo-Texas]

This is their web site legal.. which says they collect information.

I'm betting their apps have a similar eula but I couldn't locate them (they may only be available while installing the app). I checked the user manuals and the eula is not in the manuals.

http://we-vibe.com/legal

Standard Innovation® Corporation intends to build the user's trust and confidence in Internet and App use by promoting the use of fair information practices. Our privacy statement covers we-vibe.com, standardinnovation.com and the We-Vibe® mobile app.

If you have questions or concerns regarding this statement, you should first contact us at our mailing address found on the Contact Us page or by emailing Customer Service at: customerservice@we-vibe.com.
Privacy is Paramount to Us

Standard Innovation Corporation understands the need for and is committed to all reasonable protection of our customersâ(TM) privacy. We will not share information about you with any third party other than the shipper you choose to deliver your goods ordered on our ecommerce site.
Information Collection

Distributor Orders and RMA's
If you contact us, we may collect certain personally identifiable information from you. On our web-form you must provide contact information such as: name, shipping address, telephone number, email. This information is considered private and will not be divulged to third parties except the shipper if relevant.
Links to Other Sites

Standard Innovation Corporation is not responsible for the content or security of other sites that we link to.
Sharing

We do not share, rent, or sell your personally identifiable information with any third parties for marketing purposes.
Customer Service

If you register on our Website to have access to the "Media and Trade" section, we will send you a welcoming email to provide your password. If you register in the We-Vibe App and choose to receive news and offers we will send you a welcome email. In both cases you can unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link provided in the footer of each email message.
Agents

We use an outside shipping company to fulfill orders. To the best of our knowledge, these companies do not retain, share, or use personally identifiable information for any other purposes.
Legal Disclaimer

We reserve the right to disclose your personally identifiable information if required to by law.
Log Files

Like most websites and apps, we gather "cookies" and certain other information automatically and store it in log files to maximize your website and app experience. We use this information in the aggregate and it will not be traced to an individual.
Secure Transactions on our Website

We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. However, no Internet traffic is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
Complete Shipping Discretion

If we ship you any product(s), the package will be shipped as from Standard Innovation Corporation in a plain package with no mention of the We-Vibe or product inside. This assures complete discretion.
Changes in this Privacy Statement

If we decide to change our privacy statement, we will post changes here in the Legal section of the Website so that you are aware of what information has changed. We reserve the right to modify our privacy statement at any time, so please check back here.
Contacting Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us.

--

Any any case, this case will shake up the legal situation and set things vibrating!

It kind of DOESN'T has to share that information

[seniorcoder]

No pair of communications devices "has to share that information".
Data passed between my wireless mouse and my PC hopefully isn't sent to Logitech or Dell.
Data passed between my phone and my bluetooth speaker hopefully isn't sent to Bose or Verizon.
This data is sensitive enough that it should not be shared.

"Smart" means "treacherous"

[jabberw0k]

Any nerd should know that if it's not under BSD, GPL, or another free license, and unless you can see the source code for everything, it's probably phoning home constantly. This is what Stallman and EFF warned us about with Treacherous Computing, and anyone who uses a so-called "smart" anything is a willing enabler. Dump these parasites now.

Re:It kind of DOESN'T has to share that informatio

[Dutch Gun]

How do you think two arbitrary mobile machines connect to each other on the internet (not just locally)? To connect two machines via the internet, you need to have known IP addresses to talk to, and these phones and devices can't act as internet servers, for a variety of technical reasons, listening for these connections. Anytime you communicate with anyone else in an apparent "peer to peer" fashion using smartphone apps, some central authority is needed to at least make the initial connection.

The problem is that these companies often can't resist collecting all sorts of personal information, and don't know how to properly secure the data and communications channel (security is hard), and so it ultimately ends up as a privacy nightmare. IoT is a security disaster, but the public still hasn't caught on. There are going to be many cases such as this one over the next few years.