Vibrator Maker Will Pay $3.75M to Settle Privacy Class Action

The maker of We-Vibe, an internet enabled adult toy, has agreed to settle a class action lawsuit alleging the company violated users’ privacy by accessing personal information using the app that allows the user or their partner to activate the toy remotely.

Under the terms of the settlement, Standard Innovation Corp. will pay $3.75 million as well as destroy collected data and stop recording users’ personal information.

The settlement agreement says that this will restore the trust lost by the sex toy company when it began recording the instances and duration of vibrator use of its customers using the mobile app “We-Connect.”

Two anonymous plaintiffs hit the sex toy company with the class action lawsuit in 2016 after they discovered that the dates and times and even the intensity setting of the vibrator they were using were being recorded by Standard Innovation.

According to the class action complaint, the We-Vibe retailed for approximately $130 and used Bluetooth technology to connect to the We-Connect app that allowed users to access all of the vibrator’s features. The plaintiffs alleged that Standard violated the Federal Wiretap Act as well as Illinois privacy laws.

“Needless to say, the usage information collected by Standard Innovation through We-Connect is extraordinarily intimate and private,” asserted the plaintiffs in their memo supporting the proposed settlement agreement. “Standard Innovation collected individual-level usage information — often tied to users’ personally identifiable email addresses — and as a result … breached its customers’ trust, devalued their purchases … and violated federal and state law in the process.”

According to the class action, Standard was sending intimate details about when and how We-Vibe and We-Connect users were using their vibrators and associated web application for storage on their servers in Canada. In addition to the specific dates and times that a particular person used their We-Vibe, Standard was also recording the intensity of the vibration level the sex toy was being set at for the use.

Settlement documents indicate that $3 million will be awarded to We-Connect app users, while $750,000 will go to those who purchased the We-Vibe vibrator. According to the proposed agreement, vibrators have been purchased by about 300,000 Class Members and 100,000 of them use the We-Connect app with it as well.

The plaintiffs’ memo supporting the proposed settlement agreement notes that Standard had to tap its insurance policy “if any resolution was to occur at an early stage” because the company has “limited financial resources.” The maximum amount provided by the insurance company is $3.71 million.

Top Class Actions will post updates to this class action settlement as they become available. For the latest updates, keep checking TopClassActions.com or sign up for our free newsletter. You can also receive notifications when this article is updated by using your free Top Class Actions account and clicking the “Follow Article” button at the top of the post.

The plaintiff is represented by Benjamin H. Richman, Eve-Lynn Rapp and J. Dominick Larry of Edelson PC.

The We-Vibe Privacy Class Action Lawsuit is N.P. v. Standard Innovation (US) Corp. d/b/a We-Vibe, Case No. 1:16-cv-08655, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.

UPDATE: The We-Vibe data collection class action settlement is now open! Click here to file a claim.

UPDATE 2: On Oct. 26, 2017, Top Class Actions viewers who filed a claim for the We-Vibe Data Collection class action settlement started receiving checks worth as much as $128.16. Congratulations to everyone who got PAID!