Fuzzible Friends Alexa Connected Toy

“Hey, Alexa, let’s play Fuzzible Friends!” Say that and your Amazon Echo device will start up and connect over Bluetooth to your little fuzzy friend. The stuffed toy itself doesn’t have a microphone built in, which is good. Still, Amazon’s Alexa and a company called Creativity Incorporated that developed Fuzzible’s Alexa Skill will be listening to your child play. Here’s how they say they use what they listen to.

First it’s great that Creativity Incorporated has a privacy policy for their Alexa Skill. Studies have found that’s unfortunately not always the case with developers of Alexa Skills. In their privacy policy they say they can receive personal data based on the parental consent granted to Amazon. So, you can choose to give Amazon permission to collect your child’s personal information. And Amazon says, if you don’t choose to grant that permission, they still might process your child’s voice recordings through certain Alexa features. If it all sounds quite confusing, it’s because it is. What does Amazon do with any data they might collect from those processed voice recordings? We’re not 100% clear on that. Amazon does say that child-directed Alexa Skills cannot sell physical products or services; sell digital products or services without using Amazon In-Skill Purchasing; or collect any personal information from children. Which feels like everything could be OK. We just aren't able to confirm that.

Also, according to the privacy policy of Creativity Incorporated, they collect anonymized information about users of their Alexa voice app for the Fuzzible. This information includes geolocation data and transcripts of the child’s sessions, including personal data of things said while your child is talking with their Fuzzilble fuzzy friend. The example the company uses to explain how this works says, “For example, if you state your age during a session, then that statement will appear in the transcript.” While all this is anonymized, which is good, that doesn’t mean it’s still not a lot of data being collected on your child. And as privacy researchers often point out, it’s been found to be pretty easy to de-anonymize some types of data and track down an individual’s patterns, especially with location data.

So, is the Fuzzible Friend with Alexa a safe toy for your child to play with. Well, we couldn't confirm this product meets our Minimum Security Standards. And the company says the toy "ran its course and is no longer being manufactured." We're not sure what that means when it comes to any data collection or privacy considerations. It’s likely nothing will go wrong. It’s also possible data could be collected on your child. All in all, we have to say your best bet is to assume privacy might not be included with this toy if you chose to connect it to an Echo device. “Alexa, stop!”