Talking Dolls Pose Privacy Risk to Children, Advocacy Groups Allege

Internet-connected toys pose privacy risks to children, and their parents often aren't aware, according to advocacy groups for children and consumers.

A complaint expected to be filed Tuesday with the Federal Trade Commission alleges that two talking dolls—My Friend Cayla and I-Que Intelligent Robot, both made by Genesis Toys Inc.—collect and use personal information from children in violation of rules prohibiting unfair and deceptive practices.

The complaint was drafted by several groups, including the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood and Consumers Union. The groups also filed complaints with data protection, consumer protection and product safety regulators for the European Union, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland and Norway.

"When a toy collects personal information about a child, families have a right to know, and they need to have meaningful choices to decide how their kids' data is used," said Katie McInnis, technology policy counsel for consumer advocacy nonprofit Consumers Union.

According to the complaint, Genesis Toys doesn't get the consent of children's parents before collecting children's voice recordings and other personal data while they are using the toys. Genesis then sends the voice recordings to a separate company that may use the data for other products.

In previous cases, when the FTC has found companies violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, it has typically filed a civil administrative complaint against the company in an effort to get the allegedly offending company to change its practices.

Los Angeles-based Genesis Toys didn't respond to a request for comment.

My Friend Cayla, a $60 interactive doll that users can talk to, uses speech recognition, a microphone and speakers to understand what a user is saying. The internet-connected toy submits the user's queries through a Bluetooth connection to a smartphone app to come up with responses.

The Cayla doll is preprogrammed with phrases that reference Disney World and Disney movies that would be difficult for young children to recognize as advertising, according to the groups filing the complaint.

The I-Que Intelligent Robot functions in a similar way and sells for about $90. My Friend Cayla is sold at Walmart, Toys "R" Us, Amazon.com and other retailers in countries around the world. The I-Que Intelligent Robot is sold at retailers in the U.K.

For both toys, the terms of service are difficult to find, and the documents give few details about what information is collected from the children, how it is used, or where it ends up, the complaint says.

"Children form friendships with dolls and toys with 'personalities,' and confide intimate details about their lives to them," said Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood executive director Josh Golin. "It is critical that the sensitive data collected by these toys be subject to the most stringent protections and not be used for manipulative and sneaky marketing."

The complaint filed with the FTC is based on a report on connected toys conducted by a Scandinavian consulting group on behalf of the Norwegian Consumer Council. In addition to My Friend Cayla and I-Que, the council also investigated Hello Barbie, an interactive doll created by Mattel Inc. and tech company PullString Inc.

Although Hello Barbie specifies that PullString won't share voice data, it may still share transcripts with unspecified parties, the report says. The advocacy groups didn't include Hello Barbie in their complaint because it isn't for sale outside the U.S., they said.

Mattel and PullString didn't respond to requests for comment.

Write to Georgia Wells at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 06, 2016 01:25 ET (06:25 GMT)

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