Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) issued a report on Dec. 14 on privacy and security concerns surrounding connected toys that called for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to monitor the situation and for security to be included during construction.
Nelson, a ranking member of the Senate's Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, compiled the report after receiving input from toy makers, including VTech, Fisher-Price and KGPS. The basic findings were that the products of these and other toy companies collect a wide variety of personal identifiable information from the child and parent during use and that there are policies and security measures in place to protect the data.
However, those protective measures did not prevent breaches from happening to Vtech and other manufacturers.
The report recommended toymakers bake in security, the FTC should monitor the connected toy space and parents need to educate themselves on the privacy dangers presented by these toys.
The FTC recently received a complaint from several privacy groups asking it to investigate connected toys from Genesis Toys. The groups alleged the toys ask personal questions and then store the data.
