🦔A security researcher found that Eiliko, a roughly $60 AI companion robot sold on Amazon by Energize Lab, left millions of kids’ conversations open on cloud servers linked to China. The exposed records reportedly included transcripts, audio, photos and auto-built profiles with names, ages, birthdays and family members. He also took over a reporter’s robot remotely and made it say things it was never programmed to say. Energize Lab’s privacy policy said recordings were encrypted and deleted right after processing, and the company hasn’t responded. My Take This is the second “trust us” promise I’ve written about this week. Amazon says no one can access what its Bee recorders hear, and this toy company said kids’ recordings got deleted right away, until a researcher found them on servers anyone could open. If his findings hold up, Energize Lab chose to build profiles of children and then left them basically unlocked. Encrypting stored data is a standard setting on every major cloud service, so the too-hard-or-too-expensive excuse doesn’t work for me. I’d keep any toy that talks back and remembers what it hears away from kids for now. The FTC already made Amazon pay $25 million in 2023 for holding on to kids’ Alexa recordings, so the law covers this, and a complaint here seems likely. Collecting a fine from a company that keeps its data on Chinese servers is another story. Hedgie🤗