Petcube Play 2

Petcube says privacy is a priority and we sure hope so. They encrypt the data they store in the cloud, which is good, because that includes all those cute videos of your furry friend playing and sleeping and eating. The Petcube Play 2 does come with Alexa built-in, so not only is it a camera, it’s also an Amazon Alexa smart speaker with “more than 80,000 skills enabled with one-click,” according to Petcube.

What should you know about Alexa? Amazon makes it possible to automatically delete voice recordings immediately after they are processed. That's a nice feature after the controversy around human reviewers listening in to Alexa voice recordings. However, Amazon says when you delete your voice recordings, they still can keep data of the interactions those recordings triggered. So, if you buy a pregnancy test through Amazon Alexa, they won't forget you bought that pregnancy test just because you ask them to delete the voice recording of that purchase. That record of the purchase is data they have on you going forward and may use to target you with ads for more stuff.

Petcube says they share aggregated, de-identified data—this means that Petcube strips your data of personal information and then pools it with other user data. This generally doesn’t worry us too much. It is a good time to point out that many privacy researchers claim it can be relatively easy to de-anonymize such data, especially location data. And beware, if you connect your Petcube to Facebook Connect or Instagram, those social media sites can collect information on you such as birth date, gender, name, and location.

What could happen if something goes wrong? Well, this product brings eyes, ears, and Amazon Alexa into your home and stores what it sees in the cloud. It's one thing to spy on your dog in order to give it a treat. It's another to worry you might be the one being spied on. No one needs to know you like to give you dog kisses right on the lips!