ARTICLE · 15 MAY 2017

Smart Toys: Smart Or Just Creepy?

Torkin Manes LLP

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It's been a bad few weeks for Internet-enabled "smart" children's toys. Citing privacy and security concerns, on Feb. 17, the Bundesnetzagentur, Germany's Federal Network Agency for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post and Railway, announced that it had banned a popular doll called My Friend Cayla and decisively removed the product from the German marketplace.

CanadaPrivacy

Lisa R. Lifshitz

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Originally published on Canadian Lawyer Online - IT Girl Column

Citing privacy and security concerns, on Feb. 17, the Bundesnetzagentur, Germany's Federal Network Agency for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post and Railway, announced that it had banned a popular doll called My Friend Cayla and decisively removed the product from the German marketplace.

Cayla is an interactive doll currently sold in Canada that connects to the Internet via Bluetooth and can respond to a child's questions in real time. Sounds innocent, right? However, critics allege that the toy uses a hidden microphone to record and collect the discussions with children without any meaningful limitations on collection, use or disclosure of any personal information or adequate data protection standards.

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