According to a user on Reddit, the smart sex toy maker Lovense has been secretly creating audio files each time one of its remote control vibrators is used, and may have been retrieved by the company from the device.
“I was going through my phone media to prepare it for a factory reset and came across a.3gp file named “tempSoundPlay.3gp” in the folder for the App”.
A Reddit user claimed that the Hong Kong-based Lovense Remote recorded a six-minutes audio file on the app’s local folder.
Another commenter, claiming to be a Lovense representative, said these recordings are the result of a “minor software bug”. The app requests access to a smartphone or tablet’s microphone and video, which are used to send messages in peer-to-peer chat – not to record sessions for later.
The poster said they had given the app permission to use the mic and camera to enable the couple to exchange voice clips through the in-app chat feature.
“The Lovense remote control vibrator app. seems to be recording while the vibrator is on”, wrote user tydoctor. “I have deleted the app, and will no longer be using its Bluetooth functions”. They added, “a temporary file that is created when someone uses the Sound Control feature”.
They confirmed it happened only on Android devices and an update has been released that delete the temporary audio file when you close out of the Sound Control feature.
Subsequently, others in the thread found similar audio files (many labeled “tempSoundPlay.3gp”) on their devices.
“Your concern is completely understandable”, it said.
This file is supposed to be deleted in the end of each session but because of a bug in the last version of our Android app, the file wasn’t deleted successfully.
“This cache file now remains on you phone instead of deleting itself once your session is finished”.
The bug has been fixed and an updated version of Lovense Remote is now available for download in the Google Play store.
This isn’t the first time a sex toy company has landed in hot water for putting user privacy at risk. “All data transfers are peer-to-peer”.
Earlier this year, a butt plug by Lovense called the Hush was found to be vulnerable to hackers.
