Concerned With Toy Security Risks, Warner Queries Ohlhausen About Children's Privacy

Amid concerns about security vulnerabilities for children's products, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who co-founded the Senate Cybersecurity Caucus last year, is asking acting FTC Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen for information about whether legislation protecting children's data needs to be updated and if the commission needs additional authority to regulate industry's handling of kids' online data. In a Monday letter to Ohlhausen, Warner said he's worried children's protections aren't keeping pace with consumer and tech trends, particularly security vulnerabilities with devices and the transmission and storage of data collected by the devices. "Reports of your statements casting these risks as merely speculative -- and dismissing consumer harms that don’t pose 'monetary injury or unwarranted health and safety risks' -- only deepen my concerns," he wrote. Warner cited the alleged data breach reported by several media outlets in February of Spiral Toys' CloudPets products, which uses an app to record and send messages to the toy, and a complaint filed with the FTC against the "My Friend Cayla" doll that can be hacked (see 1703220045 and 1612190051). Warner wants answers to questions about whether industry is complying with Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act standards, if the commission can require companies to recall defective products, the latest FTC guidance or action on the CloudPets and Cayla products, and why Ohlhausen believes IoT device insecurities have yet to materialize or why the private sector is better equipped to address such problems. An FTC spokeswoman acknowledged receipt of Warner's letter but didn't comment beyond that.