I really have a hard time believing that any half-way intelligent and caring parent would buy their kid one of these. There's just too much room for abuse by outsiders (MITM or advertising).
Mattel urged to scrap Wi-Fi mic Barbie after Register investigation
Privacy activists are urging Mattel to axe its Hello Barbie doll, which sends recordings of children's voices across the internet for voice-recognition analysis. The improbably proportioned doll is fitted with a small embedded computer, a microphone, a speaker and a Wi-Fi interface. When the toy's belt buckle is pressed, …
COMMENTS
-
-
Thursday 12th March 2015 03:58 GMT BillG
Mattel's servers don't hold the conversations Hello Barbie records, ToyTalk does, and the startup has stated explicitly that the audio will never be used for advertising purposes.
...adding, "We're a startup company, we don't need the millions and millions that advertising to children will bring us. Trust us, suckers! Muahahahaha!"
-
Thursday 12th March 2015 02:39 GMT Ian Michael Gumby
Oh what can we say...
For those who are conspiracy nuts: Blame the NSA, CIA as a way to spy on everyone.
But that's not all.
When the parents away, they could use Big Data to get more information on the children and families and then brainwash the kids by having Barbi talk to them in their sleep.
-
Thursday 12th March 2015 02:44 GMT frank ly
Reducing development costs
"The SF upstart says it has its eyes on a larger prize: developing an accurate voice recognition system for children."
So, they targeted a group of children who are almost guarenteed to be all girls and get the voice samples for free instead of paying people to bring their children in to make recordings of conversations in controlled and guided situations.
-
Thursday 12th March 2015 05:54 GMT MrDamage
Re: Reducing development costs
From a technical standpoint, it does have one advantage over the controlled and guided situations.
That is that voice recognition will get better at recognising particular accents, abbreviations, rambles, and other things we tend to say day-to-day, but would be less likely to say in a lab environment.
It would mean an end to things like;
Me: Siri, where can I buy a roll of linoleum?
Siri: I'm sorry, did you want to buy a roman, and only one?*
*Apologies to Billy Connolly for stealing one of his older gags.
-
-
-
-
Thursday 12th March 2015 03:58 GMT Captain DaFt
Re: "..the nuanced responsiveness of caring people interacting with one another ..."
"Can someone please explain WTF this guy is talking about."
Soothing psycho-babble to lull you into a (false) sense of security and trust with their product.
Advertisers pay the big bucks to get their spiels and press releases tweaked just right to enhance consumer credulity.
-
Thursday 12th March 2015 09:48 GMT Dan 55
Re: "..the nuanced responsiveness of caring people interacting with one another ..."
Nuanced responsiveness and being a caring person is when you don't feed them gruel or thrash them to within an inch of their life to shut them up like our parents did to us but stick them in front of the telly or give them the tablet.
Am I doing this parenting thing right?
-
-
-
Thursday 12th March 2015 09:04 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: "her doll"
My daughter loved her Barbie. But she hated (and still does) everything pink. Any relative who dared buy her or her doll anything with pink in it was in for a rough time.
When we lived in the US during her 'barbie' period she was branded as strange by the other childern of her age. Hers was the only Barbie in biker Clothes... (made by yours truly)
Like her parents she rides a motorcycle (a Ducatti 995). Her girls have grown up with a Meh attitude to Pink.
Marketing departments should be lined up against a wall and sprayed pink until they promise not to do it again.
-
-
-
-
Thursday 12th March 2015 12:42 GMT Hollerith 1
Re: WHY??
Given that this is supposed to be a 'friend' to little girls, and they are who will be paying attention, I guess these little girls should ignore the voice and go for the breasts? Or did you not realise that some of the commentards you are addressing were female? But when I see quiptard posts such as this, I think 'another chap who has difficulties with the laydeez.'
A nice little ad hominem attack and I feel better!
-
Friday 13th March 2015 19:08 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: WHY??
> I guess these little girls should ignore the voice and go for the breasts? Or did you not realise that some of the commentards you are addressing were female?
So now lesbians don't exist? What an assumption! How sexist!
> But when I see quiptard posts such as this, I think 'another chap who has difficulties with the laydeez.'
Ditto, re your response!
:-p
-
-
Thursday 12th March 2015 08:38 GMT Fihart
Because we can !!
Egregious example of wifi being used irresponsibly.
I'd equally condemn ISPs for handing out wireless routers like candy. I've seen installations where wireless was used within inches of a desktop computer -- a simple ethernet cable would be faster and not interfere with those who actually need a wireless link.
And so many routers end up in landfill as users move flat or change ISP.
-
This post has been deleted by its author
-
Monday 16th March 2015 14:54 GMT A Twig
I dunno, I saw an advert for an awesome MicroMachines military base on TV when I was a kid that I didn't even know existed. I talked about it with my parents, and some pocket money saving combined with a few relatives chipping in for Christmas meant I got it a few months later, and for me it was the best toy ever! Pretty sure I still have it in the loft.
I used to fight huge pitched battles on the living room floor, using a blanket with books under etc to create hills/valley. In short, it gave me a huge amount of fun, with total play time probably measured in weeks and gave me opportunities to exercise my imagination to come up with ways to incorporate it into different scenarios.
If I hadn't ever seen that advert as a ~8 year old, that's a whole load of very happy memories that I wouldn't have had.
I guess the difference though was that the advert (20 something years ago) wasn't very sophisticated, no CGI or funky graphics and clearly showed children playing with the toy so it was clear what it was and what its capabilities were.
-
-
Thursday 12th March 2015 10:33 GMT Clown Shoes
Think of the (other) children!
When I was a kid my little sister had a doll with a cassette player in it and a mouth that moved so it could tell stories and sing songs. It didn't take long before me and my brother popped a Guns n Roses tape in and had it singing welcome to the jungle.
I'd love to know just how much of Mattel's server time was spent on teenage boys trying to get Barbie to say something a bit rude.
-
-
Thursday 12th March 2015 12:47 GMT Zog_but_not_the_first
Re: Hmmm... How about a gun that alks to it's shooter?
I'm happy with a talking bottle, but I prefer Alice's version
Pint, natch.
-