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GERMAN REGULATORS HAVE banned an internet-connected doll called “My Friend Cayla” that can chat with children, warning that it was a de facto “spying device”.
Parents were urged to disable the interactive toy by the Federal Network Agency which enforces bans on surveillance devices.
“Items that conceal cameras or microphones and that are capable of transmitting a signal, and therefore can transmit data without detection, compromise people’s privacy,” said the agency’s head, Jochen Homann.
“This applies in particular to children’s toys. The Cayla doll has been banned in Germany. This is also to protect the most vulnerable in our society.”
The doll works by sending a child’s audio question wirelessly to an app on a digital device, which translates it into text and searches the internet for an answer, then sends back a response that is voiced by the doll.
The German regulators in a statement warned that anything a child says, or other people’s conversations, could be recorded and transmitted without parents’ knowledge.
“A company could also use the toy to advertise directly to the child or the parents,” it said.
“Moreover, if the manufacturer has not adequately protected the wireless connection, the toy can be used by anyone in the vicinity to listen in on conversations undetected.”
Genesis Toys, which manufactures the doll, says on its website that it “is committed to protecting your and your family’s personal information.
“Our objective is to ensure that our products and services are safe and enjoyable for our customers”.
It also says Cayla “is programmed to not utter, display or say words or images that would be inappropriate for children to see or hear”.
The company regularly reviews “encryption and physical security measures” to guard against unauthorised access to customers’ personal information.
But it warns on its website that “unfortunately no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure”.
The regulation agency added that it would “inspect other interactive toys and, if necessary, will take further action”.
The European Consumer Organisation said it welcomed the decision but criticised the fact consumers would struggle to get compensation.
Its head Monique Goyens said that “if connected toys, such as this speaking doll, can be hacked to spy on or talk to children, they must be banned”.
She added that “EU product laws need to catch up with digital developments to deal with threats such as hacking, data fraud or spying”.
This link between zika and GB is tenuous is so rare that the story is hyperbole, where is this upsurge?
After another attempt by the abortion industry to link a medical catastrophe, and abortion; it now appears most likely that the high incidence of affected children is linked to an additive put in the water supply of these regions, and not to the mosquito itself. This blood thirsty industry is begging for an excuse to force abortions on people’s who have resisted it’s mantra. The “advanced, sophisticated” west cannot believe that people would wish to place the defence of human life, over the conveniences of modern living, which includes the killing of its own offspring.
That is the first time that I have heard of the ‘additive put in the water supply of these regions ..’ Where did you come across this ? Was it on one of you all’ life is sacred web pages ?’
pyroproxifen, is a larvacide used to interrupt the mosquito breeding cycle.
The problem with the indirect reference made by Paddy Scully is that not all states in Brazil use the product.
The rate of encephalitis outside areas using the larvacide is as prevalent as those in areas where it is used.
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