Lovense’s smart vibrator secretly recorded audio from sex sessions without user knowledge
There’s a ton of sensitive information stored in our smartphones. Whether it’s contacts, photos, videos, websites visited, messages and the like — it’s all information you probably don’t want falling into the wrong hands. But what happens when you bring your smartphone into the bedroom? Well, that opens up a whole new realm of extremely personal data potentially waiting to be breached. The scariest part? It’s already happened.
A company who manufactured and sold We-Vibe vibrators recently settled a class-action lawsuit for $3.75 million after users claimed the company had illegally collected and recorded sensitive personal information. Everything from usage dates and times, intensity settings, and minute-to-minute temperature measurements. It was a huge violation of privacy and something you’d think smart sex-toy manufacturers would be extremely cautious to avoid. Well, most of them anyway.
A user on Reddit recently got a scare after discovering their Lovense vibrator’s companion app was recording private sessions without their knowledge. It was only after the user began poking around in the files stored on their device that they came across a 6-minute long audio clip the app had recorded while the vibrator was in use. It’s worth noting that the app does, in fact, ask for a variety of permissions — including access to your phone’s microphone — but it was assumed this had more to do with the app’s video chatting function. So what gives?
After the post gained so much attention, Lovense (who’s app controls a variety of Bluetooth enabled sex toys) finally chimed in, attempting to ease fears by citing a bug in the software that appeared to only affect the Android version of the app. According to Lovense, the app records audio clips as part of their Sound Control feature (which includes sound activated vibrations) but was never supposed to keep the audio clip stored on the device indefinitely and under any circumstance was this clip ever uploaded to their servers. Lovense assures customers that they’ve since updated the Android app which now promptly deletes the audio file when a session has completed and is already available on the Google Play Store.
Bugs like this could be seen as one of the many growing pains associated with living in a fully connected world. Everything is vulnerable, from smart coffee makers, to Bluetooth enabled butt plugs. Of course, it’s no less scary when your privacy is the one being violated.
Although sometimes it’s something as simple as an unintentional software bug — as in the case of We-Vibe — other times things can be a little more nefarious. Yes, smart things can be fun but if privacy is your #1 concern, it might be best to stick to old fashioned play things for that extra peace of mind.
via Reddit