A company that produces vibrators was alleged to have monitored the sexual behavior of its users, resulting in a payment of £2.4 million.

After facing accusations of secretly monitoring customers' usage, a company that produces sex toys has paid out CA$4 million (£2.4 million) to its customers.

In 2017, We-Vibe, a Canadian company, was involved in a lawsuit regarding the sale of their "smart vibrators" that were capable of tracking their usage. As a result, the company agreed to pay each customer up to CA$10,000 (£6,120) as compensation.

A class action suit was launched in Illinois against the sex toy manufacturer’s parent company Standard Innovation and it was agreed the company would pay CA$4 million in total - with up to CA$10,000 for customers who used the associated app as well as the vibrator and CA$199 (£118) for those who had simply bought the sex toy.

We-Vibe never admitted to any wrongdoing as part of the out-of-court settlement.

The sex toy in question was the We-Vibe 4 Plus, which cost £90 and could be controlled via an app from anywhere in the world.

The item's description indicated that users could control the vibrations and create custom vibrations by touching the screen.

Users could also connect with their partners from anywhere in the world and build excitement through secure voice, chat, and video features.

However, it was discovered that the app was collecting and transmitting data back to Standard Innovation, including information on usage frequency and intensity settings, providing a detailed record of the user's intimate behavior.

Court documents revealed that approximately 300,000 people purchased Bluetooth-enabled WeVibe products, with one-third of those also using the app. Standard Innovation claimed that the data was only used for diagnostic purposes.

One woman who used the vibrator with her long-distance boyfriend expressed shock at the company's actions and felt violated that her personal preferences in bed had been recorded without her knowledge.

A We-Vibe spokesperson emphasized that customer data privacy and security were of the utmost importance, given the intimate nature of their products.

In 2017, we settled a class action suit in the United States. However, we want to clarify that no customer data was compromised or hacked, and no individual's app usage was monitored.

The We-Connect app used to have an optional registration process before September 2016. Aggregate data related to app usage, such as vibration intensity and processor temperature, was collected for product improvement purposes. We never linked this data to specific users or tracked their sexual activity intentionally. Nevertheless, we acknowledge that we should have informed users explicitly about the data collection.

We have learned from our mistake and updated the We-Connect app comprehensively, including enhancing security measures and updating our app privacy notice. We launched a new version of the We-Vibe App last year, allowing users to use the app anonymously without signing up or registering.

We ensure data protection through encryption, and more sensitive data such as vibration preferences is stored anonymously without association to individual users. We work with external privacy and security experts to continuously strengthen our data protection and security measures to provide safe products to our customers.

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