Back in the day, the greatest privacy risk that came with masturbation was your mom walking in on you while you were getting busy with yourself in your teenage bedroom. But that potential for brief embarrassment is nothing compared to this sex toy that collects your masturbatory habits and sends that data back to manufacturers.
Fusion reports that the risk lies within the We-Vibe 4 Plus, a couples’ vibrator that connects to a smartphone app, enabling your partner to control the vibrator remotely — a tool that’s particularly useful if you’re in a long-distance relationship. But that’s precisely what opens you up to the greatest security risk.
On Friday at the DEF CON hacker conference, researchers @gOldfisk and @rancidbacon presented on the sex toy’s data-collection capabilities. Specifically, the manufacturer — Standard Innovations Corporation — is informed whenever you change the vibration level and also gets a read of the toy’s temperature every minute it’s in use. (The company’s privacy policy does not disclose this.)
The president of Standard Innovations Corporation, Frank Ferrari, released a statement explaining that “We-Vibe collects data on the use of its products in terms of vibration intensity and mode for market research purposes so that we can better understand what settings and levels of intensity are most enjoyed.”
If you’d like to continue using a We-Vibe vibrator without sharing your orgasm preferences, you can do so with your device in airplane mode. Or, you know, there’s always a more analog option.
