Mattel has turned Barbie into Big Brother.
The iconic toy company partnered up with a techy startup, ToyTalk, to produce “Hello Barbie”: a wi-fi-enabled doll that learns to have “conversations” with children by storing their previous comments in a cloud database where she tracks their opinions and feelings.
Barbie’s conversations with her young friends are then analyzed by ToyTalk developers who can program her with appropriate responses.
She’s also a snitch. Nosy parents can have their kids’ conversations with Barbie stored on ToyTalk’s website, where they can later hop on and listen in. They can also program her to not talk about certain things with them, because your childhood should be as close to a dystopian regime as possible.
In addition to this being an all-around creepy concept, it has generated some obvious privacy concerns. Barbie’s cloud is sure to be vulnerable to hacking—a possibility parents are increasingly worried by, given past intrusions into devices like baby monitors.
According to Newsweek, one security researcher, Ken Munro, has already managed to hack into a similar doll produced by Vivid Toys in the U.K.
Watch a demo of Hello Barbie from a recent toy fair:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJMvmVCwoNM“She can remember, just like a real friend.”
You will be able to purchase this horrifying product for your own home later this year, for just $74.99.
http://redalertpolitics.com/2015/02/18/privacy-childhood-dead-new-talking-barbie-will-store-kids-conversations/
