[Infowarrior] - Hacked Toy Company VTech’s TOS Now Says It’s Not Liable for Hacks

[Richard Forno]

Hacked Toy Company VTech’s TOS Now Says It’s Not Liable for Hacks
Written by
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai

Staff Writer

February 9, 2016 // 11:30 AM EST

Last Friday, parents and kids who own the internet-connected toys made by VTech finally received some much-awaited news: The company’s app store and learning portal was back online after being shut down for more than two months following the embarrassing data breach that exposed the personal data of more than 6 million children.

“After further strengthening our data protection, the Learning Lodge® service is now back online,” VTech’s president King Pang wrote in an email to customers, which a parent shared with Motherboard. “We are committed to the privacy and protection of the information you entrust with VTech.”

What Pang didn’t say in the email, however, is that VTech seems to be trying to skirt any responsibility for a future hack, deflecting the blame to its own customers.

In its Terms and Conditions for the Learning Lodge, VTech now includes the following ominous language in all-caps:

“YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT ANY INFORMATION YOU SEND OR RECEIVE DURING YOUR USE OF THE SITE MAY NOT BE SECURE AND MAY BE INTERCEPTED OR LATER ACQUIRED BY UNAUTHORIZED PARTIES.”

It’s unclear when this language was added, but the document says it was updated on December 24 of last year. (VTech did not respond to a request for comment on the Terms and Conditions but said “key functions” of the Learning Lodge came back online on January 23.)

But security and privacy experts are concerned that this could be an attempt to skirt lawsuits in case of a future data breach—and they believe consumers should be aware of the move to avoid liability, especially considering that VTech is now getting in the house monitoring business.

Rik Ferguson, the vice president of security research at Trend Micro, said the clause is “outrageous, unforgivable, ignorant, opportunistic, and indefensible,” and likened it to “weasel words.” Despite this surprising change—a British law professors told me he’s “never seen a clause like that before”—legal experts doubt the provision has any real value.

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http://motherboard.vice.com/read/hacked-toy-company-vtech-tos-now-says-its-not-liable-for-hacks


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