Sex toy that can spy on couples’ bedroom antics

‘Record highly sensitive data’

FIRST there was the scandal of smart TVs apparently eavesdropping on their owners through built-in microphones.

And while that seems scary enough, the latest technological threat to our privacy is a lot more intimate.

A sex toy company was ordered to pay customers up to £6,120 each, after it used its remote-controlled gadgets to gather information about users’ habits in the bedroom.

The £115 We-Vibe 4 Plus, available from retailers including Ann Summers and Amazon, surreptitiously collected details including when and where owners used the device.

It also tracked minute-byminute temperature changes, the settings users chose, and their email addresses.

The marital aid, which is still on sale in the UK, is designed for couples to use together even when they are miles apart.

It connects to a user’s smartphone via Bluetooth, allowing their partner to download an app called We-Connect to control the device remotely.

But couples found their private moments were not so private after all – and that their information was being sent back to Standard Innovation, the toy’s Canadian manufacturer, without permission.

The firm will pay a settlement of £2.4million, including £6,120 to everyone who bought a WeVibe 4 Plus and downloaded the app before September 26 last year. Those who bought the device without using the app are entitled to £120.

The company was also forced to delete the data it had collected after the case in Illinois, brought by two anonymous women who used the gadget. ‘Unbeknownst to its customers, [Standard Innovation] designed We-Connect to collect and record highly intimate and sensitive data regarding customers’ personal We-Vibe use...to its servers in Canada,’ the complaint alleged.

Standard Innovation said it took privacy very seriously, and had made changes to give users more choice over the information they were sharing.

‘We have enhanced our privacy notice, increased app security...and we continue to work with leading privacy and security experts to enhance the app,’ it said in a statement.

Around two million devices are thought to have been sold by the company, which makes sex toys under two different brands, We-Vibe and Laid.

The privacy issue was uncovered at the DEF CON hacking conference in Las Vegas last year. Not only was the We-Vibe found to be relaying information back to Standard Innovation, but hackers could also break into the device remotely and activate it without the user’s permission.

One of the hackers, who goes by the pseudonym ‘Follower’, said: ‘The company that makes this vibrator...have over two million people using their devices...If you come back to the fact that we’re talking about people, unwanted activation of a vibrator is potentially sexual assault.’

The news follows earlier revelations about internet-enabled TVs apparently spying on their owners. Samsung came under fire over its voice-activated smart TVs, after its small print revealed they could record conversations and potentially send them to a third party.

Earlier this month, documents published by Wikileaks suggested the CIA was able to hack into smart TVs and turn them into listening posts.