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German Government Classifies Doll as Illegal Spyware

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Full article133 words · extracted from schneier.com · click to collapse

This is interesting:

The My Friend Cayla doll, which is manufactured by the US company Genesis Toys and distributed in Europe by Guildford-based Vivid Toy Group, allows children to access the internet via speech recognition software, and to control the toy via an app.

But Germany’s Federal Network Agency announced this week that it classified Cayla as an “illegal espionage apparatus”. As a result, retailers and owners could face fines if they continue to stock it or fail to permanently disable the doll’s wireless connection.

Under German law it is illegal to manufacture, sell or possess surveillance devices disguised as another object.

Another article.

Tags: children, espionage, Germany, spyware

Posted on February 20, 2017 at 6:55 AM76 Comments

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Text extracted automatically; images, tables and formatting may be missing. Original: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2017/02/german_governme.html