After breach exposing millions of parents and kids, toymaker VTech fined $650K | Hacker News Reader

After breach exposing millions of parents and kids, toymaker VTech fined $650K

techcrunch.com

16 pointstareqak4 comments

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?

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.

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.

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.

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