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The "My Friend Cayla" doll uses voice recognition to hear what a child says and connects to the internet to find suitable responses. The potential for surveillance worries EPIC enough for them to file a formal complaint to the US Federal Trade commission.
The makers of the i-Que and Cayla smart toys have been accused of subjecting children to "ongoing surveillance" and posing an "imminent and immediate threat" to their safety and security.
The accusations come via a formal complaint in the US by consumer groups.
They, along with several EU bodies, are calling for investigations into the manufacturers.
And if that's not good enough, it can also be hacked to say anything, including the naughty words which are supposed to be blocked.
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"Smart" Dolls are Potential Privacy Nightmares
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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
And tomorrow will be like today, only more so.
-- Isaiah 56:12, New Standard Version
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @12:35PM
Let's see .. how many small children tell their "secrets" to their dolls? And by "secrets" I mean "wants and desires that advertisers are lining up to buy". Why not just call this the "Tell Me What You Want Doll So I Can Send You Advertisements For It Doll".
Oooh, and let's make sure these companies also listen in for any background conversations so they can mine those for ideas about how to infiltrate the household of the doll owners with more advertisements and/or eavesdropping technology?
And divorce lawyers will just love the idea of subpoenaing the records of the doll makers when they want to twist the words of a child to use them against one of the parents.
Will law enforcement try to get these into the homes of "protesters" or "independent thinkers" or some other form of nonconformist that they deem undesirable?
I can see a Krusty the Klown version of this "Tell me all about it, kid ..."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @02:03PM
pretty easy to imagine.
edward snowden, 5 years from now, is married and has a 3 year old around the house.
the 3 year old comes from the school christmas party very excited, because santa gave it a doll that can speak.
I think the spooks would do it if only to fuck with him... (you do NOT want to be the person who takes a new toy away from a 3 year old, especially if you are emotionally attached to the 3 year old).
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Unixnut on Friday December 09 2016, @04:35PM
So put the doll in a microwave for 10-15 seconds, and job done. The 3 year old will talk and play with it whether it talks back or not.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Friday December 09 2016, @07:13PM
Rather than put battery-powered stuff in the microwave, I prefer to forget where the battery charger is, where I stored new batteries, or how to fix the darn incompatibility between the toy and our WiFi encryption settings.
But go ahead with the microwave; I'll subscribe to your Youtube channel.