EPIC In FTC Complaint: Spying Toys Pose Threat To Kids' Safety In The United States

[Lucian Armasu]

EPIC accused Genesis Toys and Nuance Communications of breaking privacy laws in the U.S. by recording children without parental approval, not using privacy laws-compliant privacy policies, and even sharing voiceprints with law enforcement agencies.

EPIC In FTC Complaint: Spying Toys Pose Threat To Kids' Safety In The United States : Read more

 

[rantoc]

Anyone want to bet if a skynet ever were to spawn it would come from a gazillion of thoose IoT devices with a clever ai programmer... not strong by itself but in numbers.

 

[Olle P]

While FTC zoom in on the "privacy for kids" issue I see much broader implications.
Toys like these don't just stick to the children, but will be around in the home. With identifiable users the EULA practically makes it legit for Nuance to sell the service of live eavesdropping into any user's home, without noting the family under surveillance.

 

[hoofhearted]

Does anyone know of router level blacklisting functionality, maybe in DDWRT or Tomato or such? Something that works like adblock where community driven lists can identify and block when data leaves your router destined for servers such as these?

 

[hoofhearted]

I mean this concept can go on all these new devices. Cars, Smart TVs, Phones, etc. I see this as an ongoing problems and us consumers need something like adblock network blcklisting/whitelisting functionality to fight this kind of crap.

 

[ammaross]

Anyone want to bet if a skynet ever were to spawn it would come from a gazillion of thoose IoT devices with a clever ai programmer... not strong by itself but in numbers.

Isn't that the premise behind the animated movie G-Force? 😛

 

[Olle P]

Does anyone know of router level blacklisting functionality, ... identify and block when data leaves your router destined for servers such as these?

Why would you want that? You buy these dolls because they can communicate with the kids, and the data traffic is required for that communication to function.
The problem stems from what other purposes the data is (can be) used for, combined with what additional (personal) information the user is required to submit initially.

The only solution is to stay away from these products in the first place!