Sex toys being able to spy on its users sounds ridiculous, but that's exactly what happened — or at least as claimed by two plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit filed against Standard Innovation in a federal court in Chicago last year.
Connected Sex Toys Break Privacy Rules
Standard Innovation is a Canadian manufacturer of adult toys, particularly "smart" connected vibrators that allow users to activate said devices remotely via Bluetooth. The class action lawsuit came after two hackers last year demonstrated that these devices can be compromised and controlled remotely.
The company has agreed to settle the suit for $3.75 million, according to the New York Times. The suit alleged the company of violating user privacy by tracking the usage of smart vibrators, and accessing personal information. Standard Innovation will halt recording of users' personal information under the terms of the settlement, which also requires it to trash any collected data for good.
Filed by two anonymous women last year, the lawsuit alleged that Standard Innovation's web-connected We-Vibe 4 Plus pushed data to the company's servers whenever the sex toy was being used. The hackers' aforementioned demonstration at a hacking conference in August showed that the company received the vibrator's temperature every minute, on top of its changes in intensity.
In addition, customers' email addresses were also sent, the lawsuit alleged. When a We-Vibe was remotely linked to a partner, the connection was "secure," although some information was also routed through We-Connect and sent to the servers. The enraged plaintiffs stated that they never consented with any form of data collection whatsoever.
Why Was The Company Collecting Usage Data?
The company at the time said that its data collection were for market research purposes, so as to determine what levels and settings of the vibrators were most preferred by users. Standard Innovation's line of sex toys, particularly the We-Vibe 4, is self-heralded as the "The world's no. 1 couples vibrator." It connects to We-Connect, an app which can control the toy's intensity, among other settings.
The lawsuit by the anonymous women alleged that the company violated the Federal Wiretap Act, alongside several privacy and consumer protection statutes. The company is "pleased to have reached a fair and reasonable settlement in this matter," according to its statement to MarketWatch. It's also poised to update its privacy policy notice with regard to how data is collected.
Part of the settlement renders those who purchased the device before Sept. 26, 2016 and used the companion app entitled to receive up to $10,000. Those who didn't use the companion app, however, may still receive up to $199.
According to a memo filed with the settlement, about 300,000 people used the said devices during the set time frame, and 100,000 downloaded and used the app. The company denied any wrongdoing in the settlement.
This class action suit follows a string of unrest associated with the notion of smart devices potentially intruding on its user's privacy. A number of reports in recent years regarding hackers' ability to remotely compromise and control smart devices have caused alarm and privacy concerns. That unrest was most recently propelled by the CIA's reported hacking tools, in which smart devices, automobiles, were shown to be prone to compromise.
