Smart Sex Toy Company Ordered to Pay Clients After Tracking Users’ Activity
Listen up: If you’re the kind of person who feels passionately about paying cash for Visa gift cards and using Incognito mode to buy something that is even a little bit sensitive, this news is for you. If you’re someone who doesn’t mind stats on your vibrator’s warmth and speed getting sent back to the company you got it from, you should still read this. Spoiler alert: Most people are not into that sort of e-exhibitionism.
We-Vibe, a company that specializes in smart sex toys that are mostly meant for long-distance couples, has been ordered to pay $7,433 to each customer who used the app that came with their device. Any customer who used the device but not the app is eligible for $147. In total, they’re shelling out about $3 million, thanks to a class action filed in Illinois,
According to the Guardian, anyone within bluetooth range could theoretically seize control of the device, which is designed so that a partner can operate it remotely through the app. This was first revealed at the DefCon hacking conference in Las Vegas last year. Two hackers from New Zealand who go by “goldfisk” and “follower” demonstrated the issue with “follower” noting that with the ability to seize control of someone else’s sex toy comes the possibility for sexual assault. Alarmingly, they weren’t even the only ones to notice the hackability of toys.
What’s more, We-Vibe’s parent company Standard Innovation received data collected by the app. That includes device temperature and intensity, so the company had access to some pretty personal information.
Standard Innovation said this:
At Standard Innovation we take customer privacy and data security seriously. We have enhanced our privacy notice, increased app security, provided customers [with] more choice in the data they share, and we continue to work with leading privacy and security experts to enhance the app. With this settlement, Standard Innovation can continue to focus on making new, innovative products for our customers.
If you’re in a long-distance relationship, we’d suggest picking up the landline and doing it the old-fashioned way, but even the microwaves are listening now, so maybe just go take a cold shower.
[image: DenisFilm/Shutterstock]
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