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Vibrator Maker To Pay Millions Over Claims It Secretly Tracked Use (npr.org)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: The makers of the We-Vibe, a line of vibrators that can be paired with an app for remote-controlled use, have reached a $3.75 million class action settlement with users following allegations that the company was collecting data on when and how the sex toy was used. The We-Vibe product line includes a number of Bluetooth-enabled vibrators that, when linked to the "We-Connect" app, can be controlled from a smartphone. It allows a user to vary rhythms, patterns and settings -- or give a partner, in the room or anywhere in the world, control of the device. Since the app was released in 2014, some observers have raised concerns that Internet-connected sex toys could be vulnerable to hacking. But the lawsuit doesn't involve any outside meddling -- instead, it centers on concerns that the company itself was tracking users' sex lives. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Illinois in September. It alleges that -- without customers' knowledge -- the app was designed to collect information about how often, and with what settings, the vibrator was used. The lawyers for the anonymous plaintiffs contended that the app, "incredibly," collected users' email addresses, allowing the company "to link the usage information to specific customer accounts." Customers' email addresses and usage data were transmitted to the company's Canadian servers, the lawsuit alleges. When a We-Vibe was remotely linked to a partner, the connection was described as "secure," but some information was also routed through We-Connect and collected, the lawsuit says.
In ages past, people had to learn not to stand where a mule might kick or step, then don't picnic on railroad tracks, then look both ways before crossing the street, then obey traffic lights. At some point it became common knowledge that electricity was dangerous if you came in contact with it, and radiation could cook you. Did you know not all TV ads are trustworthy? I knew that 50 years ago. There are simple steps you can take to make sure nobody steals your money out of the bank.
I don't think you could name a decade in the past century or even two where some nugget of knowledge about the world passes into common knowledge. Things that people would be considered stupid or illiterate if they didn't know them.
Today people should know that anything plugged into the Internet and sends data into it is subject hacked and its data stolen. Sometimes by exploit and sometimes by design. Actually people should have known that 20 years ago if not 30. Longer than that I made the decision to never ever write something in an e-mail or post to a message board (no web then) that I would be upset if it were published on the front page of next day's paper.
This lawsuit strikes me as akin to someone suing an auto maker because they didn't look both ways before crossing the street. If you don't want someone to know how often you masturbate and how, just don't put it over the 'net. M'kay?
Today people should know that anything plugged into the Internet and sends data into it is subject hacked and its data stolen.
Granted. However, the issue here isn't that it was "hacked and stolen" - the data were used without informed consent. Was it buried in the EULA, contract, written in invisible ink? The key here is the concept in contract law that a meeting of the minds has to occur. Obviously, if people knew their masturbatory habits would be put up for sale to the highest bidder, they would have avoided this product.
I find extremely objectionable your arrogant and superior attitude vis-a-vi "what people should know", not that you'll give a single whit about that. I object to it because when you get caught with "your finger off your number" and goof up, my experience is that you're going to be screaming in supersonic frequencies about how "unfair" it all is. A little imagination and empathy isn't too much to ask of someone. And yes, I'm aware you will be indignant and angry with my observations. Not that I'll give one whit about that, either.
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
Take some freaking responsibility for your choices and stop pretending like you weren't informed about what would happen, when it says it right on the box.
Except, wait for it - it doesn't say that on the box or anywhere else
So should we expect that anytime we do anything simi-private (make a phone call, kiss your SO, talk to your doctor) that we have no reasonable expectation of having it, you know - private? Such may be a utopia for you, but I find it distressing, alarming, unconscionable and un-American.
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.