Privacy activists are urging Mattel to stop producing the Hello Barbie doll, which sends recorded children's voices over the Internet for voice recognition analysis.
The Hello Barbie doll is equipped with a small built-in computer, a microphone, a speaker and a Wi-Fi interface. When the toy's belt buckle is pressed, Barbie asks a question, and records the children's answers. These answers are encoded and sent encrypted over the Internet to Mattel servers, where they are processed by voice recognition software.
This software then sends back a command to the Hello Barbie doll to respond to the child. Barbie is programmed with various questions, jokes and teases, which are collected by the digitizing software as responses.
This is supposed to convince kids that Barbie is a midget friend.
Mattel and San Francisco startup ToyTalk developed Hello Barbie, which it first introduced last month at Toy Fair 2015 in New York. Since then, many have raised concerns about privacy violations. Recordings of children's voices are stored on remote computers, ostensibly so ToyTalk can improve its voice recognition engine.
But today, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) is starting to openly turn against Hello Barbie, citing publications by the Register.
The group is upset that the doll collects a child's thoughts, and stores them in Mattel's systems. This could be used for commercial and advertising purposes, the activists say.
“If I had a young child, I would be very concerned if my child’s conversations were being recorded by the doll for later analysis,” said Georgetown University Law School professor Angela Campbell, who is also a school counselor at the Center on Privacy and Technology.
“In Mattel’s demo, Barbie asks a lot of questions that could reveal a great deal of information about a child, and their family. This information could be of great value to advertisers.”
“Computer algorithms cannot replace – and should not displace – the delicately responsive care of people interacting with each other,” said pediatrician and CCFC Board Member Dr. Dipesh Navsaria, assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
“Childhood well-being comes through the healthy development of seeking relationships through conversations with real people and friends. Children don’t need Mattel’s pre-packaged commercial messages.”
Of course, the company denies the accusations and stands by its products
“All ToyTalk products on the market are designed to meet or exceed the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). They have also been independently tested and registered as KidSafe+,” Oren Jacob, CEO of ToyTalk, told The Register.
“The underlying technology of our products works like Siri, Google Now, and Cortana, while ToyTalk products will never search the open internet for answers. The answers are carefully crafted by our own writing team, and conversations recorded within our products will never be used for advertising.
Would you buy such a doll for your child?
