Mattel's move to give Barbie a techy twist has been petitioned by advocacy group Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, demanding that the giant toy company should call off the project.
"Hello Barbie," which costs $74.99, is a Wi-Fi connected doll that features a microphone that is embedded in the doll's belt buckle. This is to record kids' voices and save them to cloud servers. They will be saved for up to two years.
ToyTalk, Mattel's partner with the project, says pre-programmed responses to some keywords or phrases aim to make children feel that there is a response from their favorite Barbie doll.
In an earlier report by McClatchy DC, Stephanie Cota, the toy company's Global Communications senior vice president said that they are turning the request of girls all over the world to "have a conversation with Barbie" into a reality.
However, advocacy group Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood says the project should be abandoned, reports 11Alive.
"This is really about Mattel eavesdropping on a child's heart and soul - and the most intimate things about their lives," cites Susan Linn executive director of the group. She added that the real problem is that Mattel will have the means to "listen in" on children at play.
This statement was rejected by both Mattel and it's tech partner ToyTalk, citing that Mattel is "committed to safety and security" and that the new Hello Barbie follows applicable government standards, which includes the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.
Mattel also stressed that they will request permission from parents to use audio recordings for the improvement of their future products and speech recognition only, and not for marketing purposes.
According to Jim Silver of toy review site TTPM, Hello Barbie is simply just a doll. "This is a plastic doll that Mattel wants to give kids a chance to interact with," he stated. "There are times to be concerned about kids and privacy. But this is not one of those times."