Privacy advocates’ new enemy: Barbie

By on March 13, 2015 at 11:00 AM

In a post-Edward Snowden world, it’s understandable that some parents are more alert to technological objects and advances that could infringe upon the privacy of their lives and the lives of their children. Which is why one group is upset with toymaker Mattel and SF-based company ToyTalk over their new “Hello, Barbie” doll. Using technology developed by ToyTalk, this Barbie is being hailed as the first fully interactive, WiFi-enabled Barbie that can carry on a full conversation with children. If that doesn’t creep you out, here’s how it will work, according to the Washington Post:

Hello Barbie works by recording a child’s voice with an embedded microphone that is triggered by pressing a button on the doll. As the doll “listens,” audio recordings travel over the Web to a server where the snippets of speech are recognized and processed. That information is used to help form Hello Barbie’s responses.

While that may not seem too ominous, this part from the Post’s story does: “Mattel says Hello Barbie will offer children a highly engaging play experience, in part because the doll will learn about its users over time.” And to give you an idea of what kind of engaging conversation the doll will be capable of, a demonstration of the toy led Barbie to offer this suggestion: “Well, you told me you like being onstage. So maybe a dancer? Or a politician? Or how about a dancing politician?” Cutting insight for all children of the world.

ToyTalk is responsible for the technology that enables Barbie to essentially talk back to your children and chief exec Oren Jacob is on the defensive, saying, “The data is never used for anything to do with marketing or publicity or any of that stuff. Not at all.” “Stuff” presumably being code for “recording all the innermost thoughts that your child dares to speak out loud in the presence of the doll.” Mattel is also promising parents that there’s nothing nefarious going on; a spokeswoman told Huffington Post:

“Mattel is committed to safety and security, and Hello Barbie conforms to applicable government standards, including the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. Additionally, Hello Barbie’s technology features a number of safeguards to ensure that stored data is secure and can’t be accessed by unauthorized users.”

The Campaign For a Commercial-Free Childhood has posted a petition to prevent the toy (with a suggested retail price of $74.99) from hitting shelves as planned this fall. They note ToyTalk’s current privacy policy, which notes that the company “may use, store, process and transcribe Recordings in order to provide and maintain the Service, to perform, test or improve speech recognition technology and artificial intelligence algorithms, or for other research and development and data analysis purposes.”

ToyTalk’s privacy policy states the company won’t use any recordings to reach out to those children and outlines that only people over the age of 13 will be able to set up accounts on the doll. Jacob insists that parents will be able to receive emailed updates about all of the sound files their child shares with the doll. Still, the CCFC remains skeptical, saying, “that won’t necessarily protect children from exploitation.”

Categories: Privacy, toys, Uncategorized
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Marcus Gilmer