# "My Name is Talky Tina, and I know your Bank Password!" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 28, 2017, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-name-is-talky-tina-and-i-know-your-bank-password/781024 "2017-02-28T12:56:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2017, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-name-is-talky-tina-and-i-know-your-bank-password/781024/1 "2017-02-28T12:56:46Z")
Apparently **CloudPets** , internet-connected plush animals that parents can leave talking messages to their kids on, are hackable, and can release sensitive information. Who knew? [If You Have One Of These Toys In Your House, You May Want To Stop Using It | HuffPost Impact](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cloudpet-hack-recordings-messages_us_58b4aef0e4b0a8a9b7857b45)? > [@](#): > > Sloppy data security practices at a toy company that sells a line of internet-connected stuffed animals has exposed the personal information of more than 800,000 customers, and some 2 million voice recordings ― many of them from children. > The toy animals, manufactured by CloudPets, have the ability to store and replay voice messages sent to them via the internet. Ideally, that means traveling parents ― for instance, a deployed military member ― could send a heartfelt message to their child’s teddy bear at home, to be replayed when their child interacts with the bear > > But since at least Christmas Day of last year, information on the CloudPets server ― including customers’ login and password information and voice recordings ― was stored in an exposed database easily accessible to anyone on the internet who knew where to look. > Online security expert Troy Hunt is one of the first to have noticed the issue. He and several others attempted to alert CloudPets to the security oversight numerous times, yet never heard back. > … > With a little sleuthing, and some help from CloudPets users willing to serve as guinea pigs, Hunt tracked down some surprisingly personal information on the CloudPets servers. Kids’ names, birthdays (minus the year) and their relationship with authorized users (i.e., parents, grandparents, friends, etc.) were all accessible. > So, too, were audio clips on the toys themselves. Hunt, who only accessed the information after obtaining permission from CloudPets users, describes on his website: > > One little girl who sounded about the same age as my own 4-year-old daughter left a message to her parents: Hello mommy and daddy, I love you so much. > > Another one has her singing a short song, others have precisely the sorts of messages you’d expect a young child to share with her parents. I didn’t download either pictures or recordings from other parties, only those I was specifically granted access to by HIBP subscribers, but the risk was clear. > It’s also entirely possible a hacker could use that information to push messages to the toys themselves. > > … > > “Parents need to work on the assumption that if they have a CloudPet, multiple unauthorized parties could have accessed their voice recordings,” Hunt told The Huffington Post in an email. “Because the service is still online today and account details were also leaked, those recordings could still potentially be accessed today.” The thread title is a reference to this classic Twilight Zone episode, for which the otherwise lovable June Foray supplied the voice: > **[Living Doll (The Twilight Zone)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_Doll_(The_Twilight_Zone))** > > "Living Doll" is the 126th episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. In this episode, a dysfunctional family's problems are made worse when the child's doll proves to be sentient. > Talky Tina, a doll that does everything, a lifelike creation of plastic and springs and painted smile. To Erich Streator, she is the most unwelcome addition to his household—but without her, he'd never enter - the Twilight Zone. Annabelle buys her daughter, Christie, a wind-up doll named "T... ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2017, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-name-is-talky-tina-and-i-know-your-bank-password/781024/2 "2017-02-28T14:07:41Z")
Who cares? Parents of small children should have nothing to hide. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2017, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-name-is-talky-tina-and-i-know-your-bank-password/781024/3 "2017-02-28T16:05:53Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Who cares? Parents of small children should have nothing to hide. > > :rolleyes: Normally I’d just give a note here for threadshitting (and this IS just a note), but consider this a very strong note. As in, “I almost decided to make this a warning” note. **Amateur Barbarian** , you not only have been here long enough to know better not to make comments like this in threads if you don’t care anything about them, but you have enough warnings to where I know this isn’t just a one off type of thing with you. _Do NOT_ threadshit again or you will start being warned for even something as (usually) small as it. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2017, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-name-is-talky-tina-and-i-know-your-bank-password/781024/4 "2017-02-28T17:11:22Z")
If parents are storing their bank passwords on these toys, there’s something really bizarre going on. I suppose there might be a little concern if hackers could get into the CloudPets and leave their own messages, so that little Joey hears a stuffed animal saying “Kill your parents! KILL!!!” \*reminiscent of the hackable in-home security camera freakout of a few years ago, when hackerturds actually _were_ using the cameras’ audio to murmur nasty things to the kiddies. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2017, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-name-is-talky-tina-and-i-know-your-bank-password/781024/5 "2017-02-28T17:13:19Z")
Your name is Talky Tina Fey. **…And I Don’t Love You…** ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2017, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-name-is-talky-tina-and-i-know-your-bank-password/781024/6 "2017-02-28T18:15:44Z")
_Talky Tina_ aired when I was 5 years old. It scared the absolute crap outa me. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2017, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-name-is-talky-tina-and-i-know-your-bank-password/781024/7 "2017-02-28T18:46:05Z")
“Tell Mommy to buy Cocoa Puffs.” “Tell Mommy to buy a Toyota.” ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2017, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-name-is-talky-tina-and-i-know-your-bank-password/781024/8 "2017-02-28T19:58:52Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > _Talky Tina_ aired when I was 5 years old. It scared the absolute crap outa me. It didn’t do much good for Telly Savalas, either. Did this fellow get into a database, or the actual devices? Getting onto a home network seems worse to me that reading a child’s messages. What a way to deliver a ransom note! “I’m Talky Tina, and if you ever want to see Sally again…” ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2017, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-name-is-talky-tina-and-i-know-your-bank-password/781024/9 "2017-02-28T20:00:14Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > Normally I’d just give a note here for threadshitting (and this IS just a note), but consider this a very strong note. As in, “I almost decided to make this a warning” note. **Amateur Barbarian** , you not only have been here long enough to know better not to make comments like this in threads if you don’t care anything about them, but you have enough warnings to where I know this isn’t just a one off type of thing with you. Whoa. That was in no way intended as a threadshit. It’s an acerbic nod to dozens of similar threads, some mine and some I’ve participated in, about the endless sweeping for data we are subjected to these days, with questionable controls and and for questionable purposes. In every one of those threads is a sub-thread of those who argue every point with “Well, I don’t care if they track everything I do” either because they perceive it as a benefit (“Goody, the store will always have my brand of peanut butter!”) or the spectacularly brainless “I don’t have anything to hide.” Cal posted an excellent and frightening link that shows just how pervasive this kind of embedded tracking has become, no matter how benign its nominal end and purpose, and even more so reinforces my repeated point that while the collector (grocery store, Google, PAC) might be utterly benign, the data is forever and can be misused in many ways about which those under surveillance should damned well care - for themselves, and for us as a society. So I could have phrased that many way, but I doubt a single one of the Dopers who wave off corprorate/marketing surveillance and tracking missed the point, and it’s to them it was written. Yes, i can shoot off shitty, ill-thought remarks. This was not one of them, and I thank Cal for the post. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2017, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-name-is-talky-tina-and-i-know-your-bank-password/781024/10 "2017-02-28T20:23:13Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Whoa. > > That was in no way intended as a threadshit. It’s an acerbic nod to dozens of similar threads, some mine and some I’ve participated in, about the endless sweeping for data we are subjected to these days, with questionable controls and and for questionable purposes. In every one of those threads is a sub-thread of those who argue every point with “Well, I don’t care if they track everything I do” either because they perceive it as a benefit (“Goody, the store will always have my brand of peanut butter!”) or the spectacularly brainless “I don’t have anything to hide.” > > Cal posted an excellent and frightening link that shows just how pervasive this kind of embedded tracking has become, no matter how benign its nominal end and purpose, and even more so reinforces my repeated point that while the collector (grocery store, Google, PAC) might be utterly benign, the data is forever and can be misused in many ways about which those under surveillance should damned well care - for themselves, and for us as a society. > > So I could have phrased that many way, but I doubt a single one of the Dopers who wave off corprorate/marketing surveillance and tracking missed the point, and it’s to them it was written. > > Yes, i can shoot off shitty, ill-thought remarks. This was not one of them, and I thank Cal for the post. No problem. FWIW, I took no offense. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2017, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-name-is-talky-tina-and-i-know-your-bank-password/781024/11 "2017-02-28T20:25:07Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Whoa. > > That was in no way intended as a threadshit. It’s an acerbic nod to dozens of similar threads, some mine and some I’ve participated in, about the endless sweeping for data we are subjected to these days, with questionable controls and and for questionable purposes. In every one of those threads is a sub-thread of those who argue every point with “Well, I don’t care if they track everything I do” either because they perceive it as a benefit (“Goody, the store will always have my brand of peanut butter!”) or the spectacularly brainless “I don’t have anything to hide.” > > Cal posted an excellent and frightening link that shows just how pervasive this kind of embedded tracking has become, no matter how benign its nominal end and purpose, and even more so reinforces my repeated point that while the collector (grocery store, Google, PAC) might be utterly benign, the data is forever and can be misused in many ways about which those under surveillance should damned well care - for themselves, and for us as a society. > > So I could have phrased that many way, but I doubt a single one of the Dopers who wave off corprorate/marketing surveillance and tracking missed the point, and it’s to them it was written. > > Yes, i can shoot off shitty, ill-thought remarks. This was not one of them, and I thank Cal for the post. If you’d explained it like this in the first place, more people might have gotten your point. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2017, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-name-is-talky-tina-and-i-know-your-bank-password/781024/12 "2017-02-28T20:38:14Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > If you’d explained it like this in the first place, more people might have gotten your point. I expected the discussion to continue; that was a gauntlet thrown down to the “who cares” crowd. Assuming I’m not suspended, I do have more to say on this specific topic. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2017, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-name-is-talky-tina-and-i-know-your-bank-password/781024/13 "2017-02-28T20:55:36Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Who cares? Parents of small children should have nothing to hide. > > :rolleyes: Just FWIW, I don’t really see this as a threadshit. More like, “what’s the deal here? Why is this a problem?” ETA: I see this has been kinda addressed. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2017, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-name-is-talky-tina-and-i-know-your-bank-password/781024/14 "2017-02-28T21:44:11Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > I do have more to say on this specific topic. And I’m sure all of us are waiting on the edge of our seats and holding our breath in anticipation. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2017, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-name-is-talky-tina-and-i-know-your-bank-password/781024/15 "2017-02-28T22:26:00Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Whoa. > > That was in no way intended as a threadshit. It’s an acerbic nod to dozens of similar threads, some mine and some I’ve participated in, about the endless sweeping for data we are subjected to these days, with questionable controls and and for questionable purposes. In every one of those threads is a sub-thread of those who argue every point with “Well, I don’t care if they track everything I do” either because they perceive it as a benefit (“Goody, the store will always have my brand of peanut butter!”) or the spectacularly brainless “I don’t have anything to hide.” > > Cal posted an excellent and frightening link that shows just how pervasive this kind of embedded tracking has become, no matter how benign its nominal end and purpose, and even more so reinforces my repeated point that while the collector (grocery store, Google, PAC) might be utterly benign, the data is forever and can be misused in many ways about which those under surveillance should damned well care - for themselves, and for us as a society. > > So I could have phrased that many way, but I doubt a single one of the Dopers who wave off corprorate/marketing surveillance and tracking missed the point, and it’s to them it was written. > > Yes, i can shoot off shitty, ill-thought remarks. This was not one of them, and I thank Cal for the post. Be that as it may, the note stands, because it came off as I said it did. If you have anything further you want to discuss about it, though, make a thread in ATMB and I will talk with you about it there and consider what you’re saying. Do not make another post about it in this thread, however, please, because it’s hijacking the thread. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2017, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-name-is-talky-tina-and-i-know-your-bank-password/781024/16 "2017-02-28T22:28:33Z")
> [@Fenris](#): > > And I’m sure all of us are waiting on the edge of our seats and holding our breath in anticipation. Really, wow? Cool. I didn’t mean that to be pompous. Read it as “I do have more to say than a snarky side shot, when and if the hijacks stop and if anyone’s interested.” Or not. I have some amusing surgery to entertain me this week. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2017, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-name-is-talky-tina-and-i-know-your-bank-password/781024/17 "2017-02-28T22:30:58Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > If parents are storing their bank passwords on these toys, there’s something really bizarre going on… I guess the parents’ CloudPet logins and passwords were exposed, so if they used the same login and password for their bank accounts, there might be a problem. Or maybe if their bank uses a voice authentication system, then they have a sample of the parents’ voices. But otherwise… ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2017, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-name-is-talky-tina-and-i-know-your-bank-password/781024/18 "2017-02-28T22:39:51Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > I guess the parents’ CloudPet logins and passwords were exposed, so if they used the same login and password for their bank accounts, there might be a problem. Or maybe if their bank uses a voice authentication system, then they have a sample of the parents’ voices. > > But otherwise… Why were login and password info even stored on the company’s server? I would want to avoid any devices with that setup. [Here’s](http://www.computerworld.com/article/2878741/hacker-hijacks-wireless-foscam-baby-monitor-talks-and-freaks-out-nanny.html) a link to the nannycam scandal story. ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2017, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-name-is-talky-tina-and-i-know-your-bank-password/781024/19 "2017-03-01T00:09:39Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > No problem. FWIW, I took no offense. I’m offended that you assumed we wouldn’t get a _Talky Tina_ reference 😃 This is still the dope, after all. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2017, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-name-is-talky-tina-and-i-know-your-bank-password/781024/20 "2017-03-01T00:38:25Z")
> [@G0sp3l](#): > > I’m offended that you assumed we wouldn’t get a _Talky Tina_ reference 😃 > > This is still the dope, after all. Damn straight. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-name-is-talky-tina-and-i-know-your-bank-password/781024.md?page=2)