Thread by @SarahJamieLewis

Here are some "fun" facts about vibrator security:

1. If your vibrator is bluetooth enabled it is trivially accessed by a local attacker. All the noise has mostly been around this attack vector but it's the most boring and least worrying.

https://twitter.com/SwiftOnSecurity/status/1085690495223898112

2. Companies that offer remote play sessions generally pass the initial contact over SMS or Email - yay metadata vectors.

3. On some apps you can spoof that initial link, and remotely add a partner by getting someone with the app installed to visit any link you want (yay mobile access from websites!)

4. Once that pairing is done, most signaling data is still transmitted through a centralized & trusted server. Yay!

Companies have used this to collect very intimate data: theguardian.com/technology/201…

5. Even where companies have done due diligence and locked down their systems they are still fundamentally highly trusted actors in what should be an intimate experience.

If you are interested in how we can build better sextech then checkout which explores not only my thoughts on metadata resistant sex, but also explorations of the academic, industry & legal sides from @drkatedevlin @pandorablake and @neil_neilzone

Also go check out @metafetish @buttplugio @qdot and @internetofdongs for people and communities building new open sex tech and those researching security issues in the space.

I also spoke about this on a couple of podcasts recently, go checkout the conversation I had with @thingsintersect about sex and consent theintersectionofthings.com/episodes/ep6-s… (and the rest of their great podcast series!)

And when I was in the UK last year I had a great time speaking with @Arcadian_O and @joana_varon for this @privacyint podcast about Gender & Privacy (and sex) soundcloud.com/privacyinterna… (also go checkout the rest of that series too!)

Connected sex toys are an AMAZING thing. They allow people who are separated geographically to connect intimately. They should be one of the hallmarks of this generation of tech.

I want to live in a world where that technology is secure & accessible.

Any security "expert" who tells you that you should never plug your sex toys to the internet is living a very boring life, not contributing to harm reductive solutions to human connection and can and should be promptly ignored.