Advocates for Justice

Kids’ privacy and safety may be jeopardized by toys that connect to the internet. Parents should pay attention to toys with speech recognition, GPS, microphone, camera, or data storage capabilities. Such devices may ask for a child’s name, age, address, phone number, or other personal information. This is information parents may not want in the hands of an unscrupulous hacker, if it is intercepted or otherwise obtained.

The number of data breaches occurring in the United States has privacy advocates watching new privacy laws that will soon take effect in European Union (“EU”) countries.

I recently visited a small coffee shop and glanced at my phone while waiting for a friend to arrive. I had a notification asking if I was, indeed, at that cafe. When I clicked on the icon, my phone immediately showed the full menu and several photos of the establishment. This was possible because the geolocation feature on the phone could pinpoint my travel throughout the morning based on GPS, WiFi, and cell tower networks.