‘Smart toilet camera claiming “end-to-end encryption” does not truly offer end-to-end encryption’

Kohler’s Dekoda: A Smart Toilet Camera and the Privacy Debate

Earlier this year, Kohler introduced the Dekoda, an innovative smart camera designed to attach to your toilet. This device captures images from inside the bowl and analyzes them to provide insights about your digestive health.

To address potential privacy concerns, Kohler assured users on its website that the Dekoda’s sensors are limited to viewing only the toilet’s interior. The company also stated that all collected data is protected using what it described as “end-to-end encryption.”

However, security expert Simon Fondrie-Teitler highlighted in a recent blog post that Kohler’s use of the term “end-to-end encryption” is misleading. Upon reviewing Kohler’s privacy policy, it becomes apparent that the company is actually referring to TLS encryption—the standard protocol that secures data as it moves across the internet, similar to what is used for HTTPS websites.

Accurate terminology is crucial, especially when it comes to safeguarding user privacy. Referring to TLS encryption as “end-to-end encryption”—a term commonly associated with secure messaging platforms like Signal, WhatsApp, and iMessage—can cause confusion. Users might mistakenly believe that Kohler cannot access the images captured by the device, which is not the case.

While Kohler did not respond to TechCrunch’s inquiries, a company privacy representative informed Fondrie-Teitler that user information is “encrypted at rest” when stored on the user’s phone, the toilet device, and Kohler’s own servers. The company further explained that “data in transit is also encrypted end-to-end as it moves between the user’s devices and our systems, where it is decrypted and processed to deliver our service.”

The security researcher also raised the possibility that Kohler could be utilizing customers’ toilet images to train artificial intelligence models, since the company has access to the data on its servers. In response, a Kohler representative stated that their algorithms are trained solely on data that has been de-identified.

The Dekoda device is priced at $599, with a required subscription starting at $6.99 per month.

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