Hello Barbie, released last month, hides behind a puppet face not childishly difficult mechanism. The built-in microphone records everything that the child speaks to her, then to broadcast the record via Wi-Fi to a computer, where the words will be encrypted to the code for transmission to the cloud server. The server has a program that deciphers the resulting code and sends back the response – the reaction to the Barbie sent replica.
This toy is a real miracle, but there is one catch, which consists in how legally to record, and then store the notes of conversations of children with a doll.
The act of protecting the personal life of children on the Internet, which entered into force in April 2000 in the States, provides for strict rules regarding the receipt of information in this way. If we talk about children under 13 years of age, then data collection is allowed only with the consent of parents who should be aware of which information was received. Either in this case, information can be processed by a server to create a replica response, but its further storage is not allowed.
ToyTalk Executive Director said the toy meets all the requirements for the legislative act, as well as all the products of the company undergoes a check in Kidsafe+. He also clarified that all the answers are created manually by the developer team, and all the recording of conversations that come to the server are strictly confidential information, not intended for use for advertising or marketing purposes.
Hello Barbie is not the only toy-spy. There are cases of creating news Samsung Smarttvs, the information for which was obtained through listening, another example is the voice records made by Xbox Kinect.
The point here is not only in violation of anyone’s rights. Members of the coalition, which acts in defense of childhood from commerce, collected signatures in the petition to terminate the release of the toy, which, in their opinion, can collect data for use for commercial research or advertising. The outrage of people is understandable-this is a kind of invasion of private life. However, the appearance of Barbie, which is not accidental, but meaningfully, cannot be called too much a surprise, given the modern pace of technology development in all areas of life.