This has to rank way up there on the creepy scale.
You remember the creepy Samsung TV that eavesdrops on conversations in the room its located in? If you don’t, it’s here. The truth? TVs since becoming “smart” and “taking orders” by voice command (guess what other appliances do that?) and Stuxnet – you can’t say anything in your own home (or anywhere else they are). Samsung’s privacy policy:
“To provide you the Voice Recognition feature, some voice commands may be transmitted (along with information about your device, including device identifiers) to a third-party service that converts speech to text or to the extent necessary to provide the Voice Recognition features to you. In addition, Samsung may collect and your device may capture voice commands and associated texts so that we can provide you with Voice Recognition features and evaluate and improve the features. Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party through your use of Voice Recognition.” – Samsung
Samsung’s answer? “If you don't want your voice commands collected, you can disable the functionality (even though you lose some core TV features in the process).” Perfect asses.
Well, Mattel Corp. now has a great new Barbie doll: The “Hello Barbie”. It connects via Wi-Fi and also records kids’ commands and sends them to an external server “In order to improve voice command tech.” Really? Actually, it will be recording kids’ conversations and routing them to a corporation where all their likes and dislikes will be analyzed and info will be collected on their families and more…in fact anywhere the doll is located. In other words, your home has been bugged without a court warrant! New creepy level achieved!
Mattel is promising that security and privacy has been their top priority while crafting a doll that learns what kids like:
"Mattel and ToyTalk, the San Francisco-based start-up that created the technology used in the doll, say the privacy and security of the technology have been their top priority. "Mattel is committed to safety and security, and Hello Barbie conforms to applicable government standards," Mattel said in a statement." – Techdirt
I’m sure. In fact, the companies rushing face-first toward the billions in potential revenues from the "Internet of Things" market are so fixated on profit, that security and privacy have been afterthoughts -- if a thought at all. That's before we even discuss how this collected voice data creates a wonderful new target for nosy governments courtesy of the Third Party Doctrine.
Well, not to go over the edge, these “privacy standards” are quite concerning. After reading about this latest, I shopped Barbie. The flag really should have been tattered.
I hope this “smart device” craze causes folks to go back to plain old TVs, fridges and Raggedy Anne dolls…that are insentient and just do what they’re supposed to do.
I just hope Raggedy Anne isn’t going undercover.
Source:
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150317/06423830341/barbie-joins-growing-chorus-people-devices-spying-you.shtml