Verizon GizmoWatch

Do you love your kids but hate their privacy? We’ve got the perfect idea. This gift, a watch, comes from a cellphone company, complete with its very own cellular service plan. The Verizon GizmoWatch is aimed at kids who children who aren’t old enough to have their own phone. But, apparently, you’ve never too young to send data to corporate servers.

The GizmoWatch lets you spy on your own child by tracking their GPS information. (Finally!) It also lets you set up a contact list of 10 people your kid can text and call, along with other features including a step tracker, reminders, and push notifications parents can send to the watch remotely.

All of that is particularly concerning because, as Mozilla points out, Verizon has a bad privacy track record which includes breaking explicit promises about what it will and won’t do with you data.

Cameras: Yes

Microphones: Yes

Location tracking: Yes

What data it collects: Kid’s name, age gender, phone number, email, audio and video recordings, locaiton data, phone call metadata, step tracking information, contacts

Can you delete the data: Mozilla says it’s unclear whether kids’ data can be deleted.

How the company uses the data: Selling data, sharing data with third parties, combing with data from third parties

Mozilla says:

“They do also say they can share this personal information with service providers but promise to not allow any of that personal information to be used “for behavioral advertising, to compile profiles, or any other purpose.” That sounds pretty OK. Except, Verizon has been caught in the past collecting or using personal information in ways they said they wouldn’t, so you have to trust Verizon and their service providers and business affiliates to protect and respect you and your child’s personal information. Which might be OK. It also might not be, so please be aware of that.”

Mozilla’s review:

https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/verizon-gizmowatch/