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Watchdog Group Claims Smart Toys Are Spying On Kids (mashable.com)
The Center for Digital Democracy has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission warning of security and privacy holes associated with a pair of smart toys designed for children. Mashable reports: "This complaint concerns toys that spy," reads the complaint, which claims the Genesis Toys' My Friend Cayla and i-QUE Intelligent Robot can record and collect private conversations and offer no limitations on the collection and use of personal information. Both toys use voice recognition, internet connectivity and Bluetooth to engage with children in conversational manner and answer questions. The CDD claims they do all of this in wildly insecure and invasive ways. Both My Friend Cayla and i-QUE use Nuance Communications' voice-recognition platform to listen and respond to queries. On the Genesis Toy site, the manufacturer notes that while "most of Cayla's conversational features can be accessed offline," searching for information may require an internet connection. The promotional video for Cayla encourages children to "ask Cayla almost anything." The dolls work in concert with mobile apps. Some questions can be asked directly, but the toys maintain a constant Bluetooth connection to the dolls so they can also react to actions in the app and even appear to identify objects the child taps on on screen. While some of the questions children ask the dolls are apparently recorded and sent to Nuance's servers for parsing, it's unclear how much of the information is personal in nature. The Genesis Privacy Policy promises to anonymize information. The CDD also claims, however, that My Friend Cayla and i-Que employ Bluetooth in the least secure way possible. Instead of requiring a PIN code to complete pairing between the toy and a smartphone or iPad, "Cayla and i-Que do not employ... authentication mechanisms to establish a Bluetooth connection between the doll and a smartphone or tablet. The dolls do not implement any other security measure to prevent unauthorized Bluetooth pairing." Without a pairing notification on the toy or any authentication strategy, anyone with a Bluetooth device could connect to the toys' open Bluetooth networks, according to the complaint.
There's no good reason for a fucking doll (or refrigerator or thermostat or dog bowl or...) to have goddamn internet access.
As a dog, I agree with you on everything except the dog bowl.
No, you are a cow. Cows say Mooo. Moooo! Moooo! Moooo Cows Mooo! Mooo you internet connected cow!
At least the AI won't bring some fruity hipster with a man-bun over to the house for Thanksgiving like my daughter recently did. I mean, he was a nice enough guy and all, but he seemed a little low-T if you catch my drift. I tried to get him to watch football or go out back and play mumblety-peg or strip down to our briefs and try out some wrestling moves, but he demurred. He also wouldn't eat any of the turducken, saying that he was some kind of vegan or something. I mean, what the fuck is that all about? When I was his age, I lived on raw hamburger and Skoal Long Cut.
I guess my dream of my daughter marrying a first-round draft pick out of Alabama or something is just about gone. Well, it is what it is. Kid's will break your goddamn heart. you know?
You are welcome on my lawn.
At least my Lincoln Logs never spied on me.
And I'm so old that when I was five and told my dad I wanted Lincoln Logs for Christmas, he handed me a hand axe, a piece of flint and some beef jerky and dropped me off in the woods. I was out there in my little jammies in the middle of December and let me tell you, it got so cold I had to kill a deer and crawl inside to keep from freezing to death. It was like something out of The Revenant.
Yeah, I had a rough childhood, let me tell you.
You are welcome on my lawn.