Sexual Intimacy in the Age of Smart Devices: Are We Practicing Safe IoT?

Sexual preferences are one of our most intimate and private choices, and new IoT devices, while facilitating and expanding the ways in which partners can enjoy sexual intimacy, can also put at risk the privacy and safety of their users. In this paper we analyze smart vibrators and show systematic privacy and security problems that can put owners of these devices at risk of privacy breaches and sexual assault. We discuss the role these sexual IoT devices play in the larger liberty and morals legislation discussion and emphasize that the security and privacy of these devices should be held at a higher standard than other IoT tools because of the potential consequences of security breaches.