Smart dildos? Be careful what you wish for.
Don’t really know where to start with this one, except to say, you just can’t make this stuff up. A federal wiretap class action lawsuit has been filed against a company that makes “sensual lifestyle products”—including vibrators. The lawsuit is brought by a woman who alleges her vibrator is recording the date and time of each use, together with her selected settings and email address. (Now that’s multi-tasking).
So, first thoughts? There must be something wrong—the product is defective. Realty check—no—the product is working just fine. In fact, just as intended. Next thought—how is this legal and who wants this information? I mean, Really??
The skinny is that the We-Vibe vibrator is made to be operated through a smartphone app. According to the lawsuit, in order to operate the We-Vibe, “users download defendant’s ‘We-Connect’ application from the Apple App Store or the Google Play store and install it on their smartphones.” Easy enough, do it on the subway on the way to work.
The concept behind this product, from the user’s perspective, is to enable the user and her partner, through a “connect lover” feature, to operate the vibrator by remote control using their smartphones, even when they are physically separated. So—down the street, another city—another continent. Maybe even from 35,000 feet up, in the friendly skies. And then there’s the whole distracted driving thing. Hah! The touch screen allows the users to control the type, frequency and intensity of vibrations through 10 modes on a promised “secure connection.”
I’m having a hard time imagining a room full of nerds working on this one. But, thinking about it, maybe not. Wonder how much research went into developing the settings? And how was the research done—or is it all just random? Is there a process for complaints—and can you send the product back if it doesn’t live up to expectations? I digress, but then again—is that even possible anymore?
Meanwhile, back in the basement, the “defendant fails to notify or warn customers that We-Connect monitors and records, in real time, how they use the device. Nor does defendant disclose that it transmits the collected private usage information to its servers in Canada,” according to the lawsuit. Why Canada? Because We Vibe is in fact made by Ontario-based Standard Innovation Corp.
Thinking of Ashley Madison now…another banner Canadian company.
But the really dark part of all this is, according to John Banzhaf, a public interest law professor at George Washington University Law School, who published an essay on this, if a hacker—whether a former lover or a total stranger—intrudes on the We-Vibe information, he or she could conceivably be charged with sexual assault or even rape. “Since the smart dildos are connected to the internet, and can be controlled by someone even on another continent, hacking is an obvious possibility and potential danger,” Banzhaf says. As one writer put it, this brings a whole new meaning to phone sex.
The complaint, filed in Illinois, claims violations of various state and federal laws, alleging violation of the U.S. Wiretap Act, the Illinois Eavesdropping Statute, and the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practice Act. It also states these violations constitute intrusion upon seclusion in Illinois, as well as unjust enrichment on their profits.
The plaintiff has an initial hearing scheduled for November 8. Be interesting to see if it makes it to that far.
Gripping stuff!!
HERE[‘S WHAT I WROTE:
Pranksters using a Samsung (or any other) cell phone to hack into Internet signals being sent by a woman’s lover to control her “smart” dildo can be liable for the civil wrong of sexual battery (sometimes called sexual assault), and might even be criminally liable for the felony of rape.
He explains that a new high tech “smart” dildo connects to the Internet, so that the woman’s lover can control the type, intensity, and sequence of the vibrations she feels as he brings her to orgasm, even from hundreds of miles away.
But since anything connected to the Internet can be hacked, it may not be too long before hackers send their own control signals to the cyber dildo – perhaps from a cell phone with appropriate programming – says law professor John Banzhaf, one of the nation’s oldest hackers, and the man who first copyrighted programs for computers, and then had computers and data processing recognized under federal copyright law.
There are dozens of cases where men have penetrated women – with their own penis or with an object – only as a result of obtaining consent by misrepresentation; e.g., a man who impersonates a doctor, and inserts something supposedly for a medical purpose.
This can occur even if the woman is not aware of the violation at the time – e.g., medical students who were permitted to practice gynecological exams digitally and with instruments on women undergoing operations – and suffers no adverse physical consequences.
The same principle has also been applied in rape cases. For example, a perpetrator known as the “Fantasy Man” was convicted of felony rape when he got women in Nashville to permit him to have sex – including stimulating foreplay – with him by pretending to be their boyfriend.
Similarly, a Palestinian man who obtained consent from a woman to penetrate her only by falsely claiming that he was Jewish was found guilty of rape by deception.
Although the law in the new era of cyber sex and possibly therefore cyber sex crimes is in its infancy, there has already been one civil law suit where a woman found that her responses to the different vibratory sequences on her cyber dildo, as well as her email address, were being transmitted to a third party.
Although the defendant was the device’s manufacturer, the same principle would seemingly apply if a hacker intercepted the same information. Indeed, the liability would seem to be even clearer since the hacker, unlike the product’s maker, can advance no possible justification for acquiring the information.
Furthermore, if a man can be guilty of rape for inserting an object where the woman was tricked into believing him to be a doctor or her lover, shouldn’t the same principle apply if she agrees to have the sexually stimulating vibrations from the object drive her to orgasm – a very intimate activity for which she would grant consent only to her husband or lover, and not to an unknown hacker.
As the Israeli court said in upholding a verdict of rape even though the woman had consented to have sex, but only with Jewish men: “The court is obliged to protect the public interest from sophisticated, smooth-tongued criminals who can deceive innocent victims at an unbearable price – the sanctity of their bodies and souls. When the very basis of trust between human beings drops, especially when the matters at hand are so intimate, sensitive and fateful, the court is required to stand firmly at the side of the victims – actual and potential – to protect their well being. Otherwise, they will be used, manipulated and misled, while paying only a tolerable and symbolic price.”
Doesn’t the same principle also apply here?
PUBLIC INTEREST LAW PROFESSOR JOHN BANZHAF
Just when we thought we’d heard everything! Who would think this could possibly be private? Just from the description of the app, a reasonable person would realize there would be considerable data gathering & storing, which requires being sent through a server somewhere.