Manufacturer ‘connected vibrator’ settles case about forwarding usage data

The manufacturer of the ‘connected vibrator’ We-Vibe has settled the privacy case about the transmission of data such as usage time, remaining battery time and temperature. The company has also amended its privacy terms.

Details of the settlement are not contained in the document that Ars Technica publishes. A few months ago, a woman filed a lawsuit against Standard Innovation, the company behind the We-Vibe vibrator, claiming that the company was collecting data from the companion app. The app would, among other things, send the selected vibrator settings, battery life and temperature, without the user’s explicit permission for this.

The woman argued that Standard Innovation infringed privacy rights and violated multiple US laws by intercepting the data. Also, she would not have purchased the product if she knew that usage data was being forwarded. Her lawyers did admit that the collected data could be of use to the manufacturer. The case was filed as a class action, allowing other users to join.

Standard Innovation backed down and promised to improve security, have privacy experts vet its policies, and communicate more clearly what happens to the data. The company also promised an update to the app, giving users more control over what is sent. The company claims that no user data has fallen into the wrong hands. The incident is an example of how Internet-of-things applications can conflict with the right to privacy.