Ostrzeżenie: *Prywatność dla tego produktu do nabycia osobno
The days of being a kid free to roam and do dumb things you spend your life grateful your parents never found out about are long gone. This smart watch/tracking device/wrist communication gadget is a helicopter parent's must have accessory (OK, to be fair, I can see why parents would love this thing, it's just...kinda creepy too). Made for kids 5 -12 years old, the TickTalk watch gives parents a GPS tracking, two-way HD video and voice calling, activity tracking, photo taking, music streaming, emergency SOS calling device with a host of parental controls. It also gives parents a super creepy discreet listening function called Super Hearing. Get the app, set up the watch, strap it on your kid, and they'll never know a moment of privacy ever again. And your worry as a parent will also probably go down. This smart tracking watch for kids really does highlight the issue of privacy versus safety and how those two conflict. So, hows does the TickTalk watch do when it comes to protecting you and your kids' privacy? Well, it looks like it probably does an OK job keeping your kids' personal information private. Your personal information as a parent? Well, maybe not so much.
Co się może stać, jeśli coś pójdzie nie tak?
There’s good news and bad news when it comes to the privacy of TickTalk's GPS location tracking, HD video and voice calling, photo taking, group chatting, activity tracking, music streaming smartwatch targeted at kids ages 5 - 12 years old. Let’s start with the bad news.
In March 2022 TickTalk got in trouble with the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the BBB National Programs watchdog organization when they were found to be in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). That’s a lot of alphabet soup to say that a trusted watchdog organization found TickTalk didn’t provide a clear, complete, and not confusing privacy policy that let parents know about how they collect information on children. The watchdog group also found that TickTalk didn’t put their privacy policy in a prominent enough place for parents to find and, even worse, they didn’t “provide a means for parents to provide verifiable consent to its information collection practices prior to the collection of information from children.” All this is pretty bad for a device that can potentially collect so much information about a kid as young as five.
The good news is TickTalk agreed to correct these privacy violations and provided CARU a plan to do so. Which means now when you go to the TickTalk website, it’s pretty easy to find their privacy policy and that privacy policy lays out pretty clearly now things like what data is collected, when it is collected, how it is shared, and what parental consent looks like. One concern we do have about TickTalk's privacy policies -- we saw at least three different "last updated" dates on the privacy policies we tracked down from their website and app pages. That was confusing and leaves us wondering how good they still are at maintaining their privacy documentation.
So, what data does the TickTalk watch and app collect? Well, there’s two stories here. There is the data collected on your child and then there is the data collected on the parent or guardian who sets up the account for the child. When it comes to the data collected on anyone under the age of 13, well, TickTalk does seem to do OK. TickTalk can collect things like a child's name or nickname, age, gender, and birth date if you choose to share it. They can also collect location information and device information. And, they say they don’t share any of this information publicly or sell or rent it to third parties for advertising purposes. So, that’s all good.
Then there is the data TickTalk says they can collect on adults. More data is collected there. Things like name, email address, relationship to the child, location information, device information, and more. And TickTalk says they can "sell" some personal data to third parties, as that term is defined in the California Consumer Privacy Act. That's not good. Although they do go on to say, "We do not knowingly sell or share (for cross-context behavioral advertising) the personal information of consumers under 16 years of age," so there's that. They do provide a way to opt-out of such data selling here.
TickTalk also says they can share your aggregated or de-identified data with partners, sponsors, or the press, for example, for things like marketing and identifying industry trends. We should remind you that it has been found to be pretty easy to re-identify some of these de-identified data sets and track down an individual’s patterns, especially when location data has been collected.
There is one specific feature on TickTalk's smartwatches for kids that really gives us the heebie jeebies. It's called Super Hearing and it is a feature that let's the owner of the TickTalk app ("full access users" as TickTalk calls them) discreetly call the smartwatch and listen in while their phone is on mute. TickTalk describes it like this, "You will be able to hear what is going on around the watch's surroundings, but your end will be muted." TickTalk also says it is was "designed solely for emergency and safety use." But yeah, we can see a bunch of ways that can be abused. Just check out the concerns this divorced mother on Reddit raised about her daughter's father spying on them in their home. Yikes!
So, what’s the worst that could happen with TickTalk? Well, anything that is designed to strap on a child as young as five, that tracks location, has two built-in cameras and a microphone, and a feature called Super Hearing that's pretty much made for spying comes with the potential for abuse and harm. It’s good to remember that. We know parents see these devices as helping protect their children from harm. We hope parents will also ask if these devices can cause harm too. Here’s hoping the smartwatch is never compromised in any way, and your child is never tracked or spied on by some bad person. That is a worst case scenario, but it’s one parents should take into consideration before buying this, or any similar device.
One final consideration. We think there is a good question to be raised about teaching young children that this level of digital surveillance in their lives is OK. Maybe we should track kids a little bit less, and teach them constant surveillance isn’t a good thing?
Wskazówki, jak się chronić
- Parents, keep a sharp eye on parent controls and permissions.
- Do not sign up with third-party accounts. Better just log in with email and strong password.
- Chose a strong password! You may use a password control tool like 1Password, KeePass etc
- Use your device privacy controls to limit access to your personal information via app (do not give access to your camera, microphone, images, location unless necessary)
- Keep your app regularly updated
- Limit ad tracking via your device (eg on iPhone go to Privacy -> Advertising -> Limit ad tracking) and biggest ad networks (for Google, go to Google account and turn off ad personalization)
- Request your data be deleted once you stop using the app. Simply deleting an app from your device usually does not erase your personal data.
- When starting a sign-up, do not agree to tracking of your data if possible.
Czy może mnie podsłuchiwać?
Aparat
Urządzenie: Tak
Aplikacja: Tak
Mikrofon
Urządzenie: Tak
Aplikacja: Tak
Śledzi położenie
Urządzenie: Tak
Aplikacja: Tak
Czego można użyć do rejestracji?
Tak
Telefon
Tak
Konto firmy trzeciej
Nie
Jakie dane zbiera ta firma?
Osobiste
Email address, name, phone number, and password; Child's name, birthday, gender; Location.
Związane z ciałem
Społecznościowe
Jak ta firma wykorzystuje te dane?
Jak możesz kontrolować swoje dane?
Jaka jest znana historia tej firmy w zakresie ochrony danych użytkowników?
In 2022, TickTalk was found to be in violation of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by the Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the BBB National Programs. The violation was due to inadequate privacy policy and because TickTalk did not give parents a way to provide verifiable consent before their child's information was collected. According to CARU. TickTalk agreed to correct their privacy violations in a detailed plan.
"The Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU – a children’s safety program of the US Better Business Bureau) reports that TickTalk Tech failed to meet COPPA requirements, as it didn’t provide clear, non-confusing notice of information it collects on children and it doesn’t notify parents of practices as required by COPPA."
In March 2022, TickTalk Tech LLC agreed to change its parental consent process for its child data collection practice for users of its TickTalk 4 kids smartwatch following a review from the watchdog group Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU). Before that, CARU review determined TickTalk did not give parents an opportunity to provide verifiable consent prior to collecting the data of children under 13 and had a privacy policy that was “confusing” and inconspicuously placed on its website.
Informacje o prywatności dziecka
Czy ten produkt może być używany bez połączenia z siecią?
Przyjazne dla użytkownika informacje o prywatności?
We found various privacy policies from TickTalk with confusing and contradictory "last updated" dates.
Odnośniki do informacji o prywatności
Czy ten produkt spełnia nasze minimalne standardy bezpieczeństwa?
Szyfrowanie
"TickTalk Tech LLC's database where we store your Personal Information is encrypted at rest, which converts all Personal Information stored in the database to an unintelligible form."" ""Once a Child accesses their Parent-created Child Account, they can take and share photos (which may contain Personal Information) in the end-to-end encrypted Secure Messaging Center with Parent-Approved Contacts."
Silne hasło
Aktualizacje zabezpieczeń
Zajmuje się problemami z bezpieczeństwem
We were unable to confirm if TickTalk has a way to manage security vulnerabilities like a bug bounty program.
Zasady ochrony prywatności
Dowiedz się więcej
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Children’s Privacy: CARU finds TickTalk Tech Smart Watch & app in violation of COPPACDP Institute
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Children’s Advertising Review Unit Finds TickTalk Tech in Violation of COPPA and CARU’s Privacy Guidelines; Company Agrees to Corrective ActionsBBB National Programs
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How to Sign Into Your TickTalk App AccountTickTalk
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Kids’ Smart Watchmaker Updates Privacy Practices at Safe Harbor’s DirectionLexology
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TickTalk 4 Kids Smartwatch Makers Agree To Overhaul Child Data Collection Process Following ReviewTop Class Actions
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The Best Smartwatches and Phones for KidsThe New York Times
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The Best Smartwatches For Kids (And Parents) To Stay ConnectedForbes
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Smartwatch Privacy for Kids During the Coronavirus PandemicCommon Sense
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