Have You Heard About the ‘Creepy’ New Barbie Doll That Can Record Your Conversations?

A brand-new Barbie slated to hit store shelves this fall might have the youngsters excited, but it's creeping out some adults.

A spokeswoman for the toymaker Mattel said the company has received numerous requests for a Barbie doll that kids can actually talk to. With its latest product, Hello Barbie, kids will be able to tell the doll whatever's on their mind and even hear Barbie's response, Yahoo News reported.

Image source: YouTube

The tech-enhanced version of the classic toy will be equipped with a microphone so that it can pick up the audio from what kids are saying. The words will then be transmitted back to a cloud server where the speech will be recorded and processed so Barbie can respond.

Kids might find the technology fascinating, but already some critics have raised privacy concerns.

Angela Campbell of the Georgetown University Center on Privacy and Technology said she's worried that children's conversations will be analyzed for commercial purposes. Campbell pointed out that in Mattel’s demo, Barbie asks questions that could prompt a lot of information about a child, her interests and even her family.

"This information could be of great value to advertisers and be used to market unfairly to children," Campbell told Yahoo.

On Wednesday, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood launched a petition trying to stop the toymaker from releasing the new Barbie. As of Friday afternoon, it had garnered more than 3,600 signatures.

CCFC director Susan Linn said that while it could appear as though children are only talking to a doll, they are actually talking "directly" to a company with financial interests.

“It’s creepy — and creates a host of dangers for children and families," Linn said.

Mattel has tried to mitigate the backlash by telling parents they can request to have the audio from their kids' conversation with the toy sent to them via email, Sky News reported. The company did not immediately respond to TheBlaze when asked to comment further.

Watch the below video to see how the voice-enabled Barbie works:

(H/T: Yahoo! News)

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