Toys That Talk to Strangers: A Look at the Privacy Policies of Connected Toys

Abstract

Toys that are connected to the Internet are able to record data from users and share the data with company databases. The security and privacy of user data thus depend on companies’ privacy policies. Though there is a rising concern about the privacy of children and parents who use these connected toys, there is a scarcity of research on how toy companies are responding to the concern. We analyzed privacy policies of 15 toy companies to investigate the ways toy companies publicly document digital standards of their connected products. Our results show that most toy companies are either unclear or do not mention in their privacy policy documents how their toys protect the security and privacy of users. We recommend measures that toy companies may adopt to explicitly respond to security and privacy concerns so parents can make informed decisions before purchasing the connected toys for their children.