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Standard Innovation, parent company of We-Vibe, has agreed to pay claimants in a class action lawsuit up to around £6,000 each for tracking their usage of We-Vibe vibrators without their knowledge.
The case has been rumbling on since July last year when it was discovered that the company’s devices were reporting back information about when they were used, for how long, what temperature they reached and what ‘vibe’ patterns were used. None of this was disclosed to users. There were also concerns about the security of the device, and who could take control of it when within Bluetooth range.
As a result, the Illinois federal court ruled that the Canadian company would need to pay a total of around $4 million (CAD, or around $3 million US, or £2.5 million), which works out at up to around $10,000 each. However, that figure only applies to people who bought a device and used the accompanying app. Users involved in the suit that only bought a device but didn’t use the app could claim a maximum of $199, according to The Guardian.
Standard Innovation had already changed the behaviour of the app before the ruling to ensure that it was no longer collecting and reporting data without user consent.
