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German Government Tells Parents: Destroy This WiFi-Connected Doll (theverge.com)
It's illegal in Germany now to sell a talking doll named "My Friend Cayla," according to a story shared by Slashdot reader Bruce66423. And that's just the beginning. The Verge reports:
A German government watchdog has ordered parents to "destroy" an internet-connected doll for fear it could be used as a surveillance device. According to a report from BBC News, the German Federal Network Agency said the doll (which contains a microphone and speaker) was equivalent to a "concealed transmitting device" and therefore prohibited under German telecom law... In December last year, privacy advocates said the toy recorded kids' conversations without proper consent, violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.
Cayla uses a microphone to listen to questions, sending this audio over Wi-Fi to a third-party company that converts it to text. This is then used to search the internet, allowing the doll to answer basic questions, like "What's a baby kangaroo called?" as well as play games. In addition to privacy concerns over data collection, security researchers found that Cayla can be easily hacked. The doll's insecure Bluetooth connection can be compromised, letting a third party record audio via the toy, or even speak to children using its voice.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center has said toys like this "subject young children to ongoing surveillance...without any meaningful data protection standards." One researcher pointed out that the doll was accessible from up to 33 feet away -- even through walls -- using a bluetooth-enabled device.
Cayla uses a microphone to listen to questions, sending this audio over Wi-Fi to a third-party company that converts it to text. This is then used to search the internet, allowing the doll to answer basic questions, like "What's a baby kangaroo called?" as well as play games. In addition to privacy concerns over data collection, security researchers found that Cayla can be easily hacked. The doll's insecure Bluetooth connection can be compromised, letting a third party record audio via the toy, or even speak to children using its voice.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center has said toys like this "subject young children to ongoing surveillance...without any meaningful data protection standards." One researcher pointed out that the doll was accessible from up to 33 feet away -- even through walls -- using a bluetooth-enabled device.
Sure no problem. Are you going to get my money back too? Oh, guess not.
This time it's the dolls :(
Will you never learn Germany?
What about Mattel's Hello Barbie doll?
The real reason the doll was banned is because talking dolls are haram.
If they can do that to a mere doll, what would they do to an Echo?
Since some people in the home might not know it was there or what it did?
Or does the fact that Alexa or Home only respond when a keyword is spoken mean it's somehow ok under these laws?
The Alexa or Home device is still listening and transmitting the voices to a server right?
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
Well that isn't creepy at all.
I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
I thought at first that I saw: "Destroy This WiFi-Connected Dell" and was quite ready to read anyways. What wasn't I thinking? Shocking!
May the lies we live by make us strong, healthy, happy and wise - Kurt Vonnegut.
Why is this allowed but the doll is not?
.......at loosing the monopoly on spying :-)
As far as I understand the applicable article under German law is this one: https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/tkg_2004/__90.html
My German is rusty but I think I can still manage to understand the gist of the article: it's essential that the thingy under consideration hides its eavesdropping abilities by looking like something you wouldn't expect to be able to eavesdrop on you.
So Echo and Siri would be Ok, since they are up-front about their ability to listen to you, and you *know* they're not under your control.
The doll in question looks like something you wouldn't expect to be able to record you.
"Smart" televisions that can record your voice and can transmit to the manufacturer when he tells it to might be a grey area. If the manual doesn't warn you, it's probably illegal, and for the same reason. If the manual tells you that this is what the TV set can do ... it's probably legal.
Make it work. Make my gut wrench with terror of the runaway plausible. Thank you!
Surely they could've included a database engine and a database big enough to give a plausible answer to most childhood questions.
As for database updates, that could be done by connecting it to a charging station that accessed the Internet.
Sure, it wouldn't always be up to date with current events or do other "live connection required" stuff but it wouldn't be creepy.
This spies on you just as bad as that doll but nobody is crying foul.
I'm shocked that people walk around with cell phones, tablets, laptops, game systems, and all sorts of devices these days that track them and invade their privacy. While I object I'm not convinced it's the governments job to force parents and people in general to make smart choices in life. I don't have a microphone or web cam in my computer. I avoid my smart phone like the plague using it only for local Bitcoin transactions and the very occasional phone call. My most utilized means of communications locally is a radio. Yea- it works well enough when combined with a repeater. I also have a larger antenna on my roof for due to the distance and siding materials my house is built of inhibiting my handheld radio from working as well indoors.
I want more freedom and liberty and moved to Keene, New Hampshire for the purpose of pursuing the formation of a free society here in New Hampshire. It's the only way to revolt against state aggressions. I partake in the Shire Society and Free State Project which are migrations of liberty oriented people to New Hampshire among lots of different projects here that enable us to fight back at the local and state level (which is what is resulting in the most harm- most people who wind up in prison are their at the state's doing-not the federal government- even if that can be really terrible- even worse).
The entire point of internet enabled devices is to collect your data. They are all surveillance devices.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Your statement, while true, totally fails to consider that the goal of making and selling such dolls is not to make children happy and to keep their privacy intact. These dolls are built to collect data, sell that data for profit, and deliver targeted advertisements to children.
Humans have eyes and ears to see and hear... and this doll has eyes and ears. Not everything is some weird conspiracy, it's just a cute doll for kids.
This will be great. Your daughter can practice having her own little auto da fe. She and her friends can dress up as Inquisitors, subject the dolls to the Question using Mommy's kitchen knives, then tie the doll to a little stake in the back yard. Pile some twigs around the base and light it off chanting Death to Technology. Post the video to You Tube. OK, maybe that's a bit over the top. How about just return the doll to where you bought it and demand a refund. If they give you any guff, start asking them why they're trying to spy on your little girl's bedroom. Loudly.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
would have been a more appropriate name.
I used to use radios, but now use pundit lights.
Citizens are not allowed to choose who/what may spy on them (assuming one wanted such a thing), yet the government imposes unaccountable state intrusion on people without any implicit or explicit consent (there was never a vote or referendum), or choice,and with potentially much more horrific consequences. This is the very essence of tyranny and oppression. (http://www.dw.com/en/germany-to-pour-cash-into-mass-surveillance/a-19537549)
A government that uses trojan and virus infested Windows computers and servers knows for a fact. So you better listen, people!
Mamma.mamma.
Bite bite bite...
Have gnu, will travel.
Microwave on high. 15 seconds should be enough.
I've NEVER had a Bluetooth device maintain connection at 30 feet WITHOUT walls.
I've never had one work through a door much less drywall...
Many baby monitors are so powerful that they effectively cover the entire home and pick up all kinds of adult conversations. A scanner and a bit of extra effort and you can tune in and learn a whole lot about what goes on in some families. Read that as whose baby is it. When daddys away mommies often have numerous "friends".
What is a baby kangaroo called in German?
What will the toy answer? The higher ranked answer from one of those cloying 'hot network questions' on stackexchange?
This is HILARIOUS! The German Government spies on all its citizens communications (like all governments these days) and now it pretends that it cares about privacy, ROFL ! The German Government sends police around to intimidate citizens about their tweets criticizing insane government policies and it pretends that a doll is the real threat? No, anyone who understands that 'democide' of citizens by their own governments in peacetime was the greatest unnatural killer in the last century realizes that the German Government threatening its own citizen's Free Speech is the vastly greater threat than some dumb doll. Go and look up the democides of the last century and you will see the same common thread - any time a government puts the collective society ahead of individuals and their liberty it ALWAYS results in individuals suffering. Yes, even collectivist Sweden is falling apart these days because the insane government suppressed the concerns of its citizens. This is the danger that the self-selecting sociopaths who run governments don't want you to see.
The fact that a 3rd party company was collecting all recordings from the dolls all over the country did not alarm the parents nor the government? That is so fucking strange.
How about disabling wifi entirely since it will automatically join spoofed SSIDs ? Nobody at IEEE or whatever the wifi consortium is seems bothered to fix that. I could be wrong (i am not) but I believe every iPhone for example will join the Apple store's wifi SSID .. and then you have companies like Xfinity and starbucks which many people's phones auto connect to. They can see all your non encrypted traffic and also redirect you to their own shit.
...bite my shiny plastic ass...
In Germany, covert listening devices are illegal to operate and own (exceptions for law-enforcement apply). That is why these dolls were illegal all along, because it is not readily obvious what they do. The "Bundesnetzagentur" has just pointed that out.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
How German of them. All obeying orders, stepping towards a bright Germanic future. I wonder what would happen to those who would not comply. Schutzstaffeln? Gaszimmer? Arbeit macht frei?
Smartphones are "concealed transmitting devices", too. They have microphones, cameras, and record data even when not used as phones. Users cannot control the times when they open the microphone and record sound in order to provide "useful" features such as voice recognition. Moreover, they can definitely be used remotely by an intruder as surveillance devices.
So, why aren't Germans required to throw them away, too?
the doll (which contains a microphone and speaker) was equivalent to a "concealed transmitting device"
the doll (which contains a microphone and speaker) was equivalent to a "smart TV"
A doll that reports to some corporate database is not ok.
Yet a doll that pretend reports to some corporate database is perfectly OK. They sell them around Thanksgiving, called "The Elf on the Shelf".
There are various entrypoints and none of them manages to display the settings window. It stalls in an empty window that can be closed but cannot switch to other setting pages. So my BT mouse is disabled and without one laptops are a small hell. If someone could do this to my BT, certainly they can do the same to a doll ! (sic). Strange coincidence, again.