Smart Vibrator Company Settles Lawsuit For Over-Collection Of, Uh, Personal Data

The internet of really broken things is raising no limit of privacy questions. As in, companies are hoovering up personal data on smart-device usage, often transmitting it (unencrypted) to the cloud, then failing to really inform or empower consumers as to how that data is being used and shared. Though this problem applies to nearly all IoT devices, it tends to most frequently come up when talking about the rise of smart toys that hoover up your kids’ ramblings, then sell that collected data to all manner of third parties. A company named Genesis toys is facing a new lawsuit for just this reason.

Since your toys, fridge, tea kettle and car are all collecting your data while laughing at your privacy and security concerns, it only makes sense that your sex toys are doing the same thing.

Back in September, a company by the name of Standard Innovation was sued because its We-Vibe vibrator collected sensitive data about usage. More specifically, the device and its corresponding smartphone app collect data on how often and how long users enjoyed the toy, the “selected vibration settings,” the device’s battery life, and even the vibrator’s “temperature.” All of this data was collected and sent off to the company’s Canadian servers. Unlike many IoT products, Standard Innovation does encrypt this data in transit, but like most IoT companies it failed to fully and clearly disclose the scope of data collection.

One of the product’s users sued the company (pdf), claiming the data collection violates Illinois consumer fraud laws and the federal Wiretap Act by not fully detailing data collection. That forced the company to issue a statement saying it was taking a closer look at ensuring that user data remained secure:

“Over the course of the last few weeks, we have taken steps to further enhance the data security and privacy measures for our product offering. As part of this effort, we have engaged external security and privacy experts to conduct a thorough review of our data practices with a view of further strengthening data protection and privacy for our customers. We are also committed to better communicating our data practices. We are updating the We-Connect app later this month, and the update will include new in-app communication regarding our privacy and data practices and a new feature for consumers to control how their data may be used.”

Again, Standard Innovation appears to have done more than most Internet of Things companies (not that this would be hard) by actually encrypting the data. That said, there’s still a certain amount of tone-deafness in collecting this much private sexual data for “research” without thinking it might come back to bite your brand on the posterior. And we’re increasingly seeing that these privacy policies aren’t clear, change frequently without warning, and don’t give consumers enough control over their personal data.

Regardless, the company decided to settle the lawsuit this week anyway, with court documents (pdf) indicating the proposed class action is no more. At the end of the day, it’s just another example of how quite often the smart, secure choice is older, dumber, disconnected tech. Even when we’re talking about purple vibrators.