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posted by CoolHand on Friday December 09 2016, @11:29AM   Printer-friendly
from the creepy-big-brother dept.

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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  • (Score: 2) by el_oscuro on Saturday December 10 2016, @12:36AM

    by el_oscuro (1711) on Saturday December 10 2016, @12:36AM (#439509)

    Kids are smart, and they will definitely pick up things that their parents might be clueless about. But as a parent you can exploit that intelligence. Just get a subscription to Mad Magazine [madmagazine.com] and leave it somewhere where they can find it. They will do the rest.
    My dad did this to me and I just *discovered* it one day. After that I would grab it from the mail before anyone else and read it cover to cover. We would sneak it into school and covertly read it during those "Ferris Bueller" moments in class.

    And we were learning the real ways the world worked without being lectured by our parents which we would have totally tuned out.

    It still works. My kids don't have facebook after reading this issue [madmagazine.com] of Mad.

    And the from the creepy-big-brother dept. bit that is on every SN article comes straight from Mad.

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