--- description: Amazon and Ebay are pulling a brand of smart toys from their sales platforms following warnings about cybersecurity weaknesses title: Retailers Drop 'CloudPets' Smart Toys Amid Hacking Concerns image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2d507d1a16518ff8/69893285929fad3a70bf0c85/gettyimages-484384682.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Amazon and Ebay Are Among Retailers Dropping 'CloudPets' Smart Toys Amid Concerns About Hacking by [Casey Quackenbush](/author/casey-quackenbush/) ## Casey Quackenbush Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 7, 2018 8:52 AM CUT  Eleven years old girl playing with her cellphone in Bonn, Germany on August 10, 2015. Eleven years old girl playing with her cellphone in Bonn, Germany on August 10, 2015.Ute Grabowsky—Photothek/Getty Images by [Casey Quackenbush](/author/casey-quackenbush/) ## Casey Quackenbush Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 7, 2018 8:52 AM CUT Amazon and Ebay are among the major retailers [pulling](https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44382135 "undefined") a brand of smart toys from their sales platforms following warnings about cybersecurity weaknesses. The brand, called CloudPets, was found last year to have been storing millions of owners’ voice recordings online, BBC reports. CloudPets is a line of soft animal toys with an inbuilt microphone and speaker that lets children record messages and listen to those of friends and family. The recordings can then be stored online via Bluetooth. In February 2017, security researcher Troy Hunt [discovered](https://www.troyhunt.com/data-from-connected-cloudpets-teddy-bears-leaked-and-ransomed-exposing-kids-voice-messages/ "undefined") that the recordings were being retrieved by unauthorized users and held for ransom. London-based Context Information Security also [found](https://www.contextis.com/blog/hacking-unicorns-web-bluetooth "undefined") that hackers could use the toys to spy on owners, as long as they were within Bluetooth range. Research commissioned by the non-profit Mozilla Foundation, the developer of the Firefox browser, subsequently identified further vulnerabilities. Manufacturer Spiral Toys claimed that it took “swift action” in response to the warnings, researchers said they had contacted the company several times before any action was taken. “It seems that refusing to sell products that threaten customers’ security and privacy is the only way to make designers and manufacturers of these products care about these risks,” Angela Sasse, a professor of human-centered technology at University College London, told the BBC. Target and Walmart have reportedly also [stopped](https://mic.com/articles/189673/target-and-walmart-stop-selling-the-superhackable-kids-toy-cloudpets-after-pressure-from-mozilla#.ug88Oxt7F "undefined") selling CloudPets, according to Mic. In 2015, a cyberattack on the Hong Kong-based children’s toy manufacturer VTech [compromised](http://time.com/4130704/vtech-hack-childrens-toys/ "undefined") the personal data of five million parents and children. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5304045/amazon-ebay-cloudpets-hacking/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5304045/amazon-ebay-cloudpets-hacking/"},"headline":"Amazon and Ebay Are Among Retailers Dropping 'CloudPets' Smart Toys Amid Concerns About Hacking","datePublished":"2018-06-07T08:52:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:51:46.117Z","description":"Amazon and Ebay are among retailers abandoning the product","url":"https://time.com/5304045/amazon-ebay-cloudpets-hacking/","keywords":["Tech","Security","onetime","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2d507d1a16518ff8/69893285929fad3a70bf0c85/gettyimages-484384682.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Casey Quackenbush","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/casey-quackenbush/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2d507d1a16518ff8/69893285929fad3a70bf0c85/gettyimages-484384682.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Me And My Cellphone And My Teddybear","caption":"Me And My Cellphone And My Teddybear","creditText":"Ute Grabowsky—Photothek/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5304045/amazon-ebay-cloudpets-hacking/","name":"Amazon and Ebay Are Among Retailers Dropping 'CloudPets' Smart Toys Amid Concerns About Hacking"}}]}] ```