Do you know Cayla doll? German regulators seem to have stopped each parent's nightmare after revealing that hackers they could easily turn a doll called "My Friend Cayla" into a spy device.
German regulators have banned the doll from being attached to Internet, prompting them parents to disable the interactive game.
"Cameras or microphones transmit a signal, and thus can transmit undetected data, endangering people's privacy," said Jochen Homann, head of the Federal Network Service.
Η service He pointed out that this is especially true of the Cayla doll where children can ask questions, waiting for the doll to answer them, which looks for them in the Internet. There is also the possibility that companies could use such toys to serve ads directly to children, which makes the situation even more dangerous given how vulnerable children are to these influences.
The warning says the doll records everything a child says, but also the people around him.
"The developer has not adequately protected the wireless connection, and the game can be used by anyone in the area to listen in on conversations unnoticed."
Genesis Toys, the maker of the doll, reports that it regularly reviews the encryption security measures to protect unauthorized access. On the other hand, even they admit that no method of transmitting data over the Internet or electronic storage method is 100% safe.
The notes manufacturer's privacy policy when using the product state that they collect all the information they want, not only to feed back information to children via Google, Wikipedia and Weather Underground, but also to improve their own services , for internal business purposes, such as conducting some research, for example.
