Tech security (or lack thereof) affects our daily lives in so many ways that it can be hard to keep track of all the things it can be involved in. Probably the last thing you’d expect a hacker to get into would be your sex toys, but here we are.
If there’s a sex toy that can be hooked up to Bluetooth, the internet, or USB anything, then there’s a chance it can be hacked. It’s not a theoretical concern either, sex toys are being hacked right now.
In 2017, a vibrating butt plug was found to be easily controllable by people who shouldn’t have had control. It was called “the world’s first teledildonic butt plug” and can be controlled from anywhere!” but that that was exactly the problem.
The butt plug could be tricked into thinking that it was talking to its host phone if the hacker had a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) scanner, and after pairing the device could make the plug vibrate on command.
It could be hacked within a 10 meter radius, but other hackers can access toys from anywhere in the world.
Earlier this week, a sex toy called Panty Buster by Vibratissimo was found to be pretty easily accessed by hackers who could then “remotely pleasure individuals without their consent.”
Then there’s the endoscopic dildo with a camera that can be hacked and accessed via WiFi. Unlike the vibrations that you didn’t ask for, you probably wouldn’t even realise someone was watching you via a hacked camera.
Even without the threat of hackers, the lack of digital security means the data these toys collect is accessible by companies and whoever else wants it. We’re beginning to develop toys that can track out favourite pattern, when and for how long the toys are used, and other diagnostic data. All the data has to go somewhere.
Digital security might not be the easiest thing to understand, but unless we want our most – ahem – private data freely out there in the world, it’s something that we’re going to have to think about.
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