Beware! Educational robots may leak privacy. Evaluation by Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Commission: 70% of products collect personal information in violation of regulations

In recent years, educational robots, as a kind of "edutainment and entertainment" toys and teaching aids, have been favored by parents and students. The Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Commission conducted an evaluation of the educational robot and released the evaluation results on October 20. Among the 12 samples, 1 sample had power safety issues; 5 samples had scratch risks; 9 samples collected consumers' personal information in violation of regulations; 4 samples still obtained personal information after consumers explicitly refused.

5 samples are at risk of scratches

Zhao Xin, director of the Supervision Department of Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Commission, introduced that educational robots refer to a service robot specially designed for learning robot-related knowledge. Teenagers can enable robots to achieve a variety of actions, movements, functions and performances through independent programming, thereby understanding the relationship between mechanical structure, movement characteristics and functions.

This time I purchased 12 samples, with prices ranging from 222 yuan to 1655 yuan. The evaluation includes two parts: hardware and software. Projects include: power supply safety, protection of exposed parts, mechanical strength, protection from misuse and accidents, software quality, collection of personal information, etc.

In terms of power supply safety testing, one sample model, the "DS-X smart car" branded as "Xiao R Technology", did not have a thermal fuse or fuse and did not meet the short-circuit safety requirements.

During the exposed parts protection test, it was found that 5 samples had exposed tips that could be touched by human hands, posing a risk of scratches. Four of the 12 samples did not meet the resistance requirements. Among them, the structural design of the ONEBOT educational robot is unreasonable. The "feet" of the robot cannot support its own weight during movement, and many parts have deformed and fallen off.

During the detection of misuse and accidental protection, it was found that a sample model of the "uHand2.0 Bionic Mechanical Palm" articulated robot branded as "Huan'er" did not indicate its safe working space in the instruction manual or data sheet. Workers may touch the work space incorrectly, causing harm to the human body.

9 illegal collection of consumer information

During the software quality test, when a sample model of the "mBot Mega programming robot" with the brand name "makeblock" uses a mobile phone to scan the package QR code to download the software, it prompts that the access page does not exist. You need to download the software from the product official website to successfully install it. The remaining 11 samples have no such problems.

Among the 12 samples, 9 collected consumers' personal information in violation of regulations, 5 of which had no privacy policy, and the privacy policies of 4 did not fully disclose the scope of information collection.

When educational robot software collects personal information, it should inform the personal information subject of the rules for collecting and using personal information, such as the purpose, method and scope. In this evaluation, 4 models still obtained personal information after consumers explicitly refused.

Educational robot software should not require personal information subjects to accept and authorize the collection of personal information at one time for business functions that they have not applied for or used by bundling various business functions of products or services. After testing, 2 samples did not meet the requirements. After the Robot Master APP is launched for the first time, windows pop up continuously "Do you want to allow the Tudao robot to record audio?" "Do you want to allow the Tudao robot to access the photos, media content and files on your device?"; the operating system version of the new microbit programming smart car is lower than Android6.0, subject to system version restrictions, there is a blanket authorization situation for versions below Android6.0.

The Provincial Consumer Protection Committee recommends that consumers pay attention to the following points when purchasing educational robots:

Choose formal channels to purchase. Pay attention to product details and select products that match the difficulty level based on the age of the user. Pay attention to safety when using. Finally, protect information security. If necessary, you can contact the personal information controller to delete personal information.

文/马yan

Editor/Ni Jianing

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