DATA-DRIVEN GREED GROWS

■ Gadgets like bathroom mirrors, cams livestreaming living room will collect data

Las Vegas, Jan. 13: Many of the hottest new gadgets are also the nosiest ones. This week’s CES tech show in Las Vegas was a showcase for cameras that livestream the living room, bathroom mirrors that offer beauty tips and gizmos that track the heartbeats of unborn children.

All will collect some kind of data about their users, whether photos or monitor readings; how well they’ll protect it and what exactly they plan do with it are the important and often unanswered questions.

These features can be useful — or at least fun — but they all open the door for companies and their workers to peek into your private life. Just this week, The Intercept reported that Ring, a security-camera company owned by Amazon, gave a variety of employees and executives access to recorded and sometimes live video footage from customers’ homes. AMAZON’S VIDEO FEEDS Like other security devices, Ring cameras can be mounted outside the front door or inside the home; a phone app lets you see who’s there. But the Intercept said the Amazon owned company was also allowing some high-level engineers in the US to view customers’ video feeds, while others in the Ukraine office could view and download any customer video file.

LIVING ROOM LIVESTREAM

It’s one thing to put cameras in our own homes, but Alarm.com wants us to also put them in other people’s houses.

The notion of placing a camera in someone else’s living room might feel unsettling. Wellcam says video streaming isn’t started until someone activates it from a phone and then it stops as soon as the person turns it off.

BATHROOM CAMERAS French company CareOS showcased a smart mirror that lets you “try on” different hairstyles. Facial recognition helps the mirror’s camera know which person in a household is there, while augmentedreality technology overlays your actual image with animation on how you might look.

CareOS expects hotels and salons to buy the $20,000 Artemis mirror — making it more important that personal data is protected.

“We know we don’t want the whole world to know about what’s going on in the bathroom,” co-founder Chloe Szulzinger said.

BODILY DATA Some gadgets, meanwhile, are gathering intimate information. Yo Sperm sells an iPhone attachment that tests and tracks sperm quality. To protect privacy, the company recommends that users turn their phones to airplane mode when using the test.

— AP