Scaling the ‘Creep-O-Meter’

The Mozilla buyers’ guide applies a “Creep-O-Meter” sliding scale with accompanying emoji to rate the items from “not creepy” to “super creepy” based on how much they are deemed to encroach on privacy.

The guide, for example rates, digital media player Apple TV as “somewhat creepy” in part because the hardware can employ location tracking. Apple TV is still among products that meet the foundation’s minimum security standard, though, requiring the use of encryption and automatic security patches, among other criteria.

The Amazon Echo Dot smart speaker, which also met the minimum standard, still rates as “very creepy” because the device is capable of remote tracking and “it shares your information with third parties for unexpected reasons,” according to the guide.

Parker Teddy Bear, which has no Wi-Fi or Bluetooth but requires you to download an app on your smartphone to explore whether Parker is happy and healthy. It gets a “somewhat creepy” because the app does use your smartphone or tablet’s camera.

The Fredi Baby Monitor is “super creepy” in light of findings by security researchers SEC Consult that flagged vulnerability to hacking after a mother last summer said the device was used to spy on her family. SEC said it found flaws in the Fredi Wi-Fi baby monitor that would allow an outside attacker to remotely connect to the device and use its built-in camera without authentication.

Video game console the Nintendo Switch, on the other hand, was rated “not creepy” because it meets most of the standards, as did the Mycroft smart speaker that uses opensource software.