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Update: Caught my nephew's toy sending our home network data out

My little nephew got a new talking robot toy for his birthday. I noticed our internet was slow, so I checked the router logs. The toy was pinging some weird servers every few minutes. We found out it was collecting voice data and sending it off. Now we keep it offline and use it as a plain old toy.
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4 Comments
luna_grant37
In Chicago, a friend's smart nightlight was recording bedtime chats. They only found out when their internet bill showed weird data spikes, so now it's just a dumb light. @the_lily, but isn't the point that we don't know what these toys are really doing with our data?
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grant_sanchez98
Actually, my friend's kid had a smart teddy bear that did the SAME thing. It was recording bedtime stories and uploading them without anyone knowing. Now they just use it as a regular stuffed animal, which is kinda sad but way safer.
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amy_west
amy_west1mo ago
My old laptop probably heard worse than bedtime stories.
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the_lily
the_lily1mo ago
But how is that any worse than phones listening all day? Most toys just use the data to get better at talking to kids, not spy on them. Tbh turning it into a dumb toy feels like missing the point.
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