A child's quiet words are being secretly recorded by smart toys. Is this an act of intimate companionship or an act of data theft? In March 2015, a Barbie doll with a conversation function triggered global concerns about children's privacy and security.
The technology behind data collection
This smart Barbie doll named Hello can continuously record the conversations between children and toys with the help of built-in microphones and Wi-Fi connections. It not only responds to questions raised by children, but also proactively asks about personal preferences, family situations and future dreams. These seemingly casual conversations will be converted into text data in real time and uploaded to the cloud server.
There is a technology company based in San Francisco that provides the core speech recognition technology for this toy. This company was founded by two people who were former Pixar animators and specializes in developing conversational applications for children. In its public privacy terms, it is clearly stated that it will use voice recordings for technology improvement and data analysis.
Fierce controversy over privacy protection
The Campaign for an Ad-Free Childhood, an organization that advocates for children's consumer protection, was the first to issue a warning. Law professors in this organization stated that children's conversations with toys in private spaces such as bedrooms fall within the scope of personal privacy protected by law. Any recorded behavior without explicit consent is suspected of infringement.
Privacy experts emphasize that children as young children lack the awareness and judgment ability to collect data. The information obtained by toy companies through friendly interactions has the potential to be used to build detailed psychological and behavioral profiles of children, which obviously breaks through the normal functional boundaries of traditional toys.
Potential driver of commercial interests
The toymaker claims that recording conversations will allow Barbie to provide a more personalized companionship. Critics, however, find that the types of data collected are exactly what advertisers are most interested in, including children's preferences, family spending habits, entertainment tendencies and more.
Even if the company promises not to sell the data, this information can still help toy manufacturers design more attractive product features. By analyzing tens of thousands of hours of children's conversations, companies can accurately grasp market demand and then develop new toys that children will find difficult to resist.
Obvious lack of legal supervision
In 2015, privacy protection regulations for IoT devices were not yet complete around the world, especially for children's smart toys, which lacked special data collection specifications. Although the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has the power to supervise fraud, its response to this new method of data collection was lagging behind.
European data protection authorities are paying attention to the problem, but servers at multinational toy companies are often placed in loosely regulated areas, making it particularly difficult for parents to know where their children's data ends up, and less able to control how it is used.
Real risks to families
When ordinary families purchase such toys, they rarely read the complicated privacy terms carefully. The vast majority of parents pay more attention to the educational functions and interactive experiences of toys, but neglect to check functions such as microphones and network connections.
If the data is leaked, children's real name information, children's address information, children's school information, children's daily routine and other information may fall into the hands of criminals. Among these leaked data, there is still the possibility of being used to push advertisements in a precise way. Before children have developed a certain sense of judgment, it will affect children's consumption concepts and their value orientation.
The future direction of industry development
After the demonstration at the New York Toy Fair caused controversy, some consumers began to boycott such smart toys, and some child development experts suggested that Internet-connected toys designed for children under 12 years old should turn off the data upload function by default, or use localized processing.
Tech companies then updated their privacy policies to allow parents to delete collected voice data. However, the fundamental question remains unresolved: how to find a balance between technological innovation and child protection? This requires governments, businesses and children's rights organizations to work together to formulate new industry standards.
In a situation where children's playmates turn into potential data collectors, how should parents identify and choose smart toys? When choosing toys for your children, what safety hazards do you pay special attention to?