
After breach exposing millions of parents and kids, toymaker VTech fined $650K - tareqak
https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/08/after-breach-exposing-millions-of-parents-and-kids-toymaker-vtech-handed-a-650k-fine-by-ftc/
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tritium
In a hypothetical world where child pornography stalkers and kick murder
cyberbullying are _NOT_ the knee jerk concern du jour, regarding the privacy
of minors, what are the other worries one might have with a situation where
little kids are running around snapping pictures with an unsecured web cam
tied to real world identities?

The only other thing I can think of is the long con of snooping on periphery
data to guess at a second factor security questionaire interview...

    
    
      1. What’s your first pet’s name?
      2. What street did you grow up on?
      3. What was your grandmother’s maiden name?
    

Are there any other weird invasive problems a product like this could evoke?

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boomlinde
You could easily use such information to find out where someone lives, what
their daily schedule is, who they associate with or what products they buy.
Photographs could easily contain immediately sensitive information like SSN
when it's kids snapping the pictures rather than privacy conscious adults –
it's a load of problems.

Then again, I think it should be considered a problem in itself, and not just
because of COPPA. Their security policy makes claims that the product does not
live up to, leading end users to assume a level of privacy that does not
exist. If there is anything you do in private that you wouldn't do in public,
I'm sure that you'll understand.

~~~
tritium
Oh yeah, the " _burglars know when you 're not at home_" scenario... I feel
like maybe there's something else, but this one's definitely a standard IoT
security checklist item.

~~~
boomlinde
Over all, private information can be incriminating, not just in terms of
bullying and pedophiles. Let's say mom calls in sick. Kid snaps a picture of
her mowing the lawn. Dad has a swastika banner in his trailer. Kid snaps a
picture. Dad is quite seriously ill. Kid snaps pictures of him in bed every
day.

Privacy breach happens, and employers, potential employers, banks, insurance
investigators etc. suddenly have access to that information by name. Mom gets
fired. Dad will never teach again. Dad can't get a life insurance because of
his current health status.

Some of these scenarios are unlikely, and some of them might seem like net
benefits to society if we squint a little. But the breach of privacy was
detrimental to people, and we all do things that we don't want everyone or
anyone else to know about.

