Earlier this 12 months, house items maker Kohler launched a wise digital camera referred to as the Dekoda that attaches to your bathroom bowl, takes photos of it, and analyzes the photographs to advise you in your intestine well being.
Anticipating privateness fears, Kohler stated on its web site that the Dekoda’s sensors solely see down into the bathroom, and claimed that every one knowledge is secured with “end-to-end encryption.”
The corporate’s use of the expression “end-to-end encryption” is, nevertheless, incorrect, as security researcher Simon Fondrie-Teitler identified in a weblog submit on Tuesday.
By studying Kohler’s privateness coverage, it’s clear that the corporate is referring to the kind of encryption that secures knowledge because it travels over the web, referred to as TLS encryption — the identical that powers HTTPS web sites.
Utilizing the correct phrases issues, particularly within the context of customers’ privateness issues. Utilizing the expression end-to-end encryption — broadly adopted by messaging apps equivalent to iMessage, Sign, and WhatsApp — to explain TLS encryption is incorrect, and might doubtlessly confuse customers who see that expression and suppose Kohler really can’t see the photographs that the digital camera takes.
A Kohler spokesperson didn’t reply to questions from information.killnetswitch, however an organization “privateness contact” informed Fondrie-Teitler that consumer knowledge is “encrypted at relaxation, when it’s saved on the consumer’s cell phone, bathroom attachment, and on our programs.” The corporate additionally stated that, “knowledge in transit can also be encrypted end-to-end, because it travels between the consumer’s gadgets and our programs, the place it’s decrypted and processed to offer our service.”
The security researcher additionally identified that given Kohler can entry clients’ knowledge on its servers, it’s doable Kohler is utilizing clients’ bowl photos to coach AI. Citing one other response from the corporate consultant, the researcher was informed that Kohler’s “algorithms are skilled on de-identified knowledge solely.”
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The Dekoda prices $599 plus a compulsory subscription of no less than $6.99 per thirty days.
