It may seem unexpected, but technology in the toy industry has made it so that consumers have to question what to do when toys become a threat to privacy. Big and small companies around the globe continue to release toys full of electronics that respond to children, record audio conversations, video, and GPS data, and then these devices transmit these audio, video, and data files locally and through the internet using connections such as wifi or bluetooth.
In their rush to beat competitors to market, toy companies are ignoring basic security protocols and exposing their customers to dangerous privacy threats.
FBI Toy Warning
The FBI recently released an alert for parents to be concerned.
FBI issues urgent warning about ‘spy toys’ that could put ‘privacy and safety of children at risk’
Advanced systems and computer hackers can intercept these signals and surveillance to record them to their system, and then use that knowledge to steal information, rob locations, and harass and bribe families.
A most abysmal possible use of this, is that criminals could record the voice of a child, and then call the parent and use that recording to “prove” that they had kidnapped their child.
Oy, it’s a crazy world.