Unveiled at the annual New York Toy Fair this past February, the new Hello Barbie will record everything your child says and send that information back to ToyTalk.
"The number one request that we get from girls is that they want to have a conversation with Barbie." So says a representative for the company in a video from this years Toy Fair. Hello Barbie, which requires a Wi-Fi connection, uses speech recognition to learn the likes and dislikes of children to ensure that the toy doll has a "unique relationship with each girl." The doll will also be able to play games. Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood calls the toy "Hello Barbie Eavesdropping Doll." They are trying to stop the doll from going into production.
Mattel developed the doll in conjunction with a speech-recognition company called ToyTalk that "creates conversational characters." According to ToyTalk's privacy policy:
"We may use, store, process and transcribe Recordings in order to provide and maintain the Service, to perform, test or improve speech recognition technology and artificial intelligence algorithms, or for other research and development and data analysis purposes."
Users of their products also agree to ToyTalk sharing any gathered information with third parties.
"What's your favorite accessory?" Privacy
There is currently an online petition aimed at stopping production of the toy.
The doll will retail for $74.99 and is scheduled to be released in the fall.
In a similar case, last month Samsung attracted negative attention when it was revealed that a new line of TV sets will record everything you say.
Watch the Hello Barbie prototype work below.
This is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Accordingly, it is difficult to figure out when to end it. But then, this is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Period.
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon