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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."

7 of 211 comments (clear)

  1. Re:And thus the Internet of Things collapses by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Fear? No. This is anger.

    In the connected world, everybody that produces any software at all uses it to collect every bit of data they can get their grubby mitts on. Many people don't care, which is why it continues.

    They will never stop out of politeness or respect. The only way to retain one's privacy is to fight for it, as this lady is doing.

  2. Re:Legal by Mitreya · · Score: 4, Insightful
    This.

    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.

    Maybe they already changed it to say "actually, all your base are belong to us". Is it really reasonable to ask users to compulsively check the agreement in case they changed it?

    Apple Developer's EULA requires our confirmation when rules change, but since they change every month or so and present you with 50 pages of new rules, only companies that have a room of of lawyers on retainer can possibly keep up.

  3. Law enforcement subpoena by PPH · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In the event of a traffic accident, they will demand the records from the server to see if the driver was having an orgasm at the time.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  4. Re:And thus the Internet of Things collapses by AmiMoJo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It never worked. In a winner-takes-all society like the US, just working hard is never enough. Lots of people work hard, they don't get rich.

    Good parents and luck, that's how you get rich in America.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  5. Re:And thus the Internet of Things collapses by fluffernutter · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This requires having a career that carries you through your life, which no longer exists. I know many people in the generation before me that went to work for one company, got on a defined benefit plan, worked there for their whole career and now have a great retirement. That won't be in the cards for many of my generation.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  6. Re:And thus the Internet of Things collapses by HiThere · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No. Being moderately well-off has usually been based on merit...with some race thrown in. Being rich has *almost* always been based on rich parents and good social connections. There are exceptions, but they are exceptions.

    --

    I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
  7. Re: And thus the Internet of Things collapses by silentcoder · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's called the American dream because it has never, ever been reality.

    --
    Unicode killed the ASCII-art *