SPY TOYS Talking dolls ‘putting kids at risk from predators’ by ‘secretly recording their con

'Smart' kids toys are reportedly collecting personal information from children, which can be easily hacked by strangers

TALKING toys could be putting your kids at risk by secretly recording their conversations and collecting personal information which could be stolen by dangerous predators.

Genesis Toys – who make the popular My Friend Cayla doll – and speech-recognition software maker Nuance Communications have been accused of using the toys to record conversations, which are then sent through the toy’s app as audio files and transmitted to Nuance’s servers.

SPY TOYS Talking dolls ‘putting kids at risk from predators’ by ‘secretly recording their conversations’

If these are on your kids wish list, watch this video.

Anything they tell little Cayla is not a secret.

Anyone think they will take them off the market?

Creepy, creepy, creepy.

a reply to: sad_eyed_lady

WOAH!

This is probably one of the most disturbing thing I've seen all decade.

What happend to good old fashioned lego

a reply to: crazyewok

It hurts too much when stepped on

I would never purchase these kinds of toys for any child. I deactivated my phone's microphone because I don't even like talking to the voice recognition software on my smart phone (no hard feelings Siri), but I know it still listens to me, because I get almost instantaneous advertisements and suggestions for things that I talk about with my acquaintances, even though I've never internet searched or browsed the subjects. I feel uneasy with Amazon's new Echo device also, I won't be developing any relationships with Alexa anytime soon.

More and more hype. Over 90% of molested children are molested by a family member or family friend.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but, the odds that a stranger is going to try to get information about your child through one of these toys is between slim and none. This crap happens every Christmas. It has been going on almost forever.

The toys have blue-tooth? so someone hacks a blue-tooth toy and a 3 year says ??
Bluetooth or even a modem does not carry far at all I am on my back porch as i type and my connection barly works.
so unless you have a repeater the signal will not even make it to the street
I put a network in for a boss once took a repeater to get it 30 yards away from the house .
so unless these toys doable as a cell phone i really would not worry to much.
And one 3 year old says to another want candy o and my address is and phone number is .
? wish i could teach my grand kids that then if they got lost alest there's a chance to find them.
PS I hate talking toys and noise makers toys never bought them (someone else always will )
But taht is another story

Dude I had a toy in the 90s that would let you broadcast to the FM radio as a sort of DJ.

The world didn't end now did it? No strangers secretly showed up after using it every night.

a reply to: JIMC5499

Your kids' toys could be spying on your family

But Genesis Toys’ My Friend Cayla doll and the i-Que Intelligent Robot allegedly have the capabilities to eavesdrop on children and their families, potentially violating laws that protect children’s privacy. That’s according to a new complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission from a coalition of consumer privacy advocates including the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). The toys allegedly send recordings to speech-to-text software company Nuance Communications, which the complaint notes has contracts with military and law enforcement agencies.

Taken from the article in the OP:

"It is extremely alarming that what a child says to her ‘trusted’ friend could end up in a voice biometrics database sold to law enforcement and intelligence agencies. “With the growing Internet of Things, American consumers face unprecedented levels of surveillance in their most private spaces, and young children are uniquely vulnerable to these invasive practices.

That's the problem.

Why is the Batman scene turning real?

a reply to: sad_eyed_lady

"The toys allegedly send recordings to speech-to-text software company Nuance Communications, which the complaint notes has contracts with military and law enforcement agencies"

This crap has been going on for years. First it was with "wireless phones" where the signal could be intercepted. Then it was cell phones and now it is toys. A voice biometrics data base? How would they even know who was talking. What about when the voice changes, nullifying the existing record?

Last but not least. What makes you think that you are important enough to say anything that law enforcement or the military would want to hear?

If they were serious about this, it would be simpler to put a tap on fast food drive thrus. There you would have the voice, a picture of the person and another picture of the vehicle that they were driving.

Oh! By the way if an evil corporation is reading this and decides to use my idea, I WANT ROYALTIES!

a reply to: JIMC5499

Last but not least. What makes you think that you are important enough to say anything that law enforcement or the military would want to hear?

We all are expendable if TPTB deem it so.

Anyway, what problem you do have with a lawsuit protecting the privacy rights of children if they are being violated?

a coalition of consumer advocates including the Consumer's Union filed suit against Genesis Toys, the maker of two such toys, the My Friend Cayla doll and the i-Que Intelligent Robot. According to the full lawsuit (pdf), the toy maker is violating COPPA (the Childrens’ Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998) by failing to adequately inform parents' that their kids conversations and personal data collected by the toys are being shipped off to servers and third-party companies. Among the problems cited in the complaint is that the privacy policies governing the collection of kids' data aren't clear, aren't prominently displayed, and often change without notice. Parents aren't properly informed that data is being culled from the toys and sent off to companies like Nuance Communications, most commonly known for its Dragon voice recognition software, but a company that also has prominent roles in healthcare dictation and as a defense contractor. Both toys by proxy are governed by Nuance's privacy policy, which among other things says: "We may use the information that we collect for our internal purposes to develop, tune, enhance, and improve our products and services, and for advertising and marketing consistent with this Privacy Policy." It continues, “If you are under 18 or otherwise would be required to have parent or guardian consent to share information with Nuance, you should not send any information about yourself to us." With the toys being marketed to "ages 4 and up" and being mostly used by kids under age 18, the lawsuit states the companies selling and collecting this toy data are violating COPPA. Under COPPA, companies gathering kids data have to provide notice to, and obtain consent from parents regarding data collection. They also have to provide parents tools to access, review and delete this data if wanted, as well as the parental ability to dictate that the data can be collected, but not shared with third parties. The complaint suggests neither Nuance or Genesis Toys are doing any of this. And again, privacy is just part of the equation. There's also the fact that these toys just aren't all that secure. A report by the Norwegian Consumer Council (pdf) found that a lot of the data being transmitted by these toys is done so via vanilla, unencrypted HTTP connections that could be subject to man in the middle attacks. Reconfiguring the devices to create in-home surveillance tools was also "very easy and requires little technical know-how," according to the report. So again, much like all internet of things devices, companies were so excited to integrate internet connectivity, they effectively forgot about user privacy and security. Are we perhaps noticing a ongoing theme yet?

www.techdirt.com...

a reply to: sad_eyed_lady

It's not just the kids being listened to with these toys, it's the parents as well.

a reply to: sad_eyed_lady

What about the secret cams in the eyes?

I'm sure they exist!

I think this film here should be mandatory viewing for well pretty much every human being:

SNOWDEN (2016)

Especially before commenting on real time interactive domestic spying appliances masquerading as toys.

a reply to: Sahabi

pretty useless phone with a deactivated mic don´t you think? if you can "deactivate" it without rooting it, it´s no problem to activate it again.

Technology is taking over our world and there's nothing anyone can do about it. But it's not all bad. If you didn't have technology you wouldn't be reading this article, or playing clash Royale! Technology has also saved many lives.

a reply to: JIMC5499

Oh yeah for sure. Did that start with Furbies? That's as far back as I can remember the Christmas spy toy scare.

a reply to: sad_eyed_lady

I have no problem with that type of lawsuit.

What I do have a problem with is the media portraying this as a threat from sexual predators and pedophiles.

a reply to: JIMC5499

The contractual relationships between Nuance and defense and intelligence communities along with problems with security problems make this doll a dud.

Making children’s toys swear

My Friend Cayla. Updated app; Updated security fails. How to make her swear (again!)