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Smart sex toy maker forced to destroy private data, pay over $3 million to users

Updated Mar 14th, 2017 12:40PM EDT
smart sex toy
Image: We-Vibe

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One of the obvious consequences of making everything “smart” is that connected devices are very good at logging information without you ever realizing it. That’s what users of a connected sex toy discovered when it was revealed that the internet-connected vibrator was sending all of its usage metrics back to its creator, where the times and dates of usage, as well as the actual vibration strength settings, were being archived. Now the company behind the too-smart-for-its-own-good sex toy is shelling out millions to settle the class action lawsuit that resulted.

Standard Innovation Corp, the Canadian company behind the We-Vibe line of connected sex toys. The We-Vibe Rave, an internet-connected vibrator, launched a couple of years ago. The device uses a smartphone app to control its function, and allows the user to give remote control of the toy to anyone they want, while also facilitating supposedly secure text and video messaging.

It’s a sex toy for couples, so you get the idea, but what We-Vibe customers were unaware of is that their obviously private use of the gadget was actually being logged by the company. The data included device settings and exact times of use, as well as the email address of the user, which makes the data personally identifiable.

A team of whitehat hackers sounded the alarm on Standard Innovation during the Def Con hacking convention in August 2016. The lawsuit was filed by users shortly thereafter, and now, after finally agreeing to settlement terms, things are wrapping up with a big payout for users. Those who used the device before September 26th of last year and did so remotely with the app are now entitled to up to $10,000 for their privacy being breached. Standard Innovation has also agreed to destroy all user data it collected.