My Friend Cayla

May 9

Written By

2014

Cayla was an internet-connected doll that used speech recognition to communicate with children. She could tell stories, carry on basic conversation, and even look up information - cute, right? The doll was named the most innovative toy of the year but failed miserably at safeguarding basic consumer rights, security, and privacy.

Everything the child said to Cayla was recorded, sent to data centers, and then sold to marketers who spied on children to learn about their consumer interests. Cayla often talked about how much she loved different commercial products, which wasn’t a coincidence since companies paid for this advertising. The doll was banned in Germany.