Customer Files Privacy Violation Lawsuit Against Lovense

SAN FRANCISCO—An anonymous customer of Lovense filed a class action lawsuit against the manufacturer, claiming the company “spies” on users of its app-controlled pleasure products. The suit, filed Jan. 31 in federal court in Northern California, is similar to one filed in 2016 against We-Vibe. That suit ended when Standard Innovation, the parent company, agreed to pay a $3.75 million settlement. In the Lovense suit, the customer—referred to only as S.D.—alleges the Hong Kong-based company uses its technology to spy on users, collecting data on the dates, times and lengths of usage and storing that information, along with private email information, on servers. “Though the data collected from its customers’ smartphones is undoubtedly valuable to the company, defendant’s conduct demonstrates a wholesale disregard for consumer privacy rights and violated state and federal laws,” the complaint reads. S.D says (s)he purchased a Lovense item in 2016 and paired it with the Body Chat App—the app developed specifically to let users pair their pleasure product with a smartphone so it can be controlled remotely from anywhere in the world—but had no idea the information about usage would be collected.  A representative for Lovense has said in order to use the software and applications, customers must agree to the company’s privacy policy, which spells out the types of data being culled by the app and the manufacturer.  A court hearing on the lawsuit has not yet been scheduled.