Female sex toys that work with smartphones are accused of secretly collecting usage data



The world of IoT , where everything is connected to the Internet, is about to arrive, but for 'sex toys,' connecting to the Internet seems to be a serious problem that invades privacy. Women in Illinois, USA, have filed a class action lawsuit alleging that the high-tech vibrator they purchased was secretly collecting user data.

CNS --Avant-Garde Sex Toys Caught in Data Dilemma
http://www.courthousenews.com/2016/09/08/avant-garde-sex-toys-caught-in-data-dilemma.htm

The problem is a female vibrator called 'We-Vibe'.



We-Vibe is a sex toy sold under the slogan 'Vibrator for couples'. By using it together when having sex, women can get pleasure.



We-Vibe can change the type of vibration using a smartphone, and women can choose the vibration that suits them best.



We-Vibe, which has the feature of being able to be operated with a smartphone, also has a remote mode. Even separated couples can use the remote mode to have pseudo-sex where they can share pleasure together.



However, according to the plaintiff who filed the class action, the We-Vibe application is connected to the Internet and the user's We-Vibe usage information is collected. By the way, the information sent by the We-Vibe app is 'vibration settings', 'battery level', 'vibrator temperature', etc. According to the plaintiff, this information is sent to a Canadian server, linked to the user's email address. In the complaint, the plaintiff said, 'There is no doubt that the data We-Vibe collects from smartphones is valuable to the company, but such actions violate user privacy and are contrary to Illinois and federal eavesdropping laws. I have. '

Added at 10:00 on March 15, 2017
As a result of the trial, We-Vibe was ordered to pay $ 10,000 per woman who was using the vibrator and app. However, the maximum payment amount for a person who used the vibrator alone without using the app is $ 199 (about 23,000 yen) per person. As a result, the total amount of payment will be 3.75 million dollars (about 400 million yen).

Vibrator maker ordered to pay out C $ 4m for tracking users' sexual activity | Technology | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/mar/14/we-vibe-vibrator-tracking-users-sexual-habits



We-Vibe, connected vibrator maker, settles $ 3.75M class-action suit --CNET
https://www.cnet.com/news/app-enabled-sex-toy-users-get-10000-each-after-privacy-breach/

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