By Sharanya Gopinathan
We-Vibe, a Canada-based sex toy maker, has to pay about C$4 million to people who bought and used their sex toys. Shockingly, it’s because the toy tracked and stored information about the users and the way they used the toys.
The We-Vibe 4 Plus is a £90 blue tooth connected vibrator, and is one of those new sex toys that can be controlled by both partners at different locations through an app, so that you can have sexy times long distance. What’s not so sexy is that the app tracked the temperature of the device and the vibration intensity, and that this information was barely secured.
In fact, details of this issue came out due to the efforts of two hackers, who found out that due to the abysmal protection of this data, in theory, hackers could take control of the sex toy without the users knowledge or permission. They presented these findings at a Defcon hacker event that took place in 2016.
The makers of the device reached a settlement in a class-action suit, and said that they take customer data protection seriously. Which clearly doesn’t seem true, but okay.
Of course, a hacker taking control of a sex toy without the users knowledge and consent would count as sexual assault, in addition to a grave breach of privacy. Issues like this really bring to light how badly prepared we are for a world where technology will dominate every area of our lives. Virtual Reality (VR) sexual assault and other forms of harassment and abuse online have left users, law enforcement and courts grappling to come to grips with deeply concerning issues of consent, harassment and consent in this new form of reality.