When people think of OSINT, they usually picture a pro investigator scraping social media for vital data, pivoting and analysing to get to the points they need. But this Christmas, OSINT could be closer to home; investigators, parents, and security professionals are still overlooking AI toys.
AI-powered toys - interactive dolls, “smart” plushies, robot pets, language-learning companions - are the next big thing for the under-twelves. They can talk to their human friends, recognise patterns, and respond in ways that feel realistic to developing imaginations. Like traditional toys, these cuddly confidantes are a listening ear - but unlike the dolls and teddies of the past, they’re connected to cloud servers, mobile apps, and online accounts.
That connectivity makes them charming companions. It also makes them powerful, poorly secured OSINT vectors. So, how can you keep your kids safe and secure? This guide will show you why OSINT on AI toys is one of the most sensitive risk areas in modern open-source intelligence, and how to use them safely.
How Do AI Toys Work?
AI toys (also known as ‘smart’ or ‘interactive’ toys) are designed to be appealing to kids: they can engage them with natural conversation, personalise their communication, and even adapt their behaviour in response to play. When a child interacts with the toy, the device records audio and usage data with cameras, microphones and sensors, then stores this information in cloud servers for processing. Sometimes, they’ll also connect this data to parent accounts too.
This feedback loop allows AI toys to “learn” over time - but also creates a significant, often-overlooked OSINT footprint. Even when the toy seems silent, the ecosystem around it - APIs, companion apps, device dashboard - often continues to operate. Just as gaming OSINT pulls intelligence from gaming ecosystems, AI-enabled toy OSINT can pull from this infrastructure. Analysts can use:
- Voice recordings and speech patterns
- Environmental audio (TV in the background, parental conversations, room acoustics)
- Chat logs
- Uploaded images
- Time-of-day and behavioural patterns
- Linked parent accounts
- Device IDs, serial numbers, and metadata
This means an AI toy can unintentionally reveal not just details about the child using it, but also about everyone else in the household. Scary.
Find out how to protect your OSINT data online in our guide to Wiping the Prints: Managing Your OSINT Digital Footprint With OpSec.
Not Just for Kids: The OSINT Risks of AI Toys
AI toys are uniquely dangerous for OSINT exposure because they rely on intimacy. An adult would take an AI toy for what it is; a cloud-connected device that should be handled with care. Kids, however, are ignorant of digital privacy or its dangers - they’ll treat the toy as a trusted companion, and tell it all their secrets without a thought.
This creates a rare kind of dataset: candid, unfiltered, emotionally coloured, and continuous (kids are the ultimate chatterboxes). And because the toy’s job is to respond intelligently, the device often stores or processes this information in the cloud. It’s understandable that this puts kids (albeit tiny) digital data worlds at risk. But how do AI toys affect you, the parent?
The answer is that AI toys often link directly to a parent’s digital ecosystem. A toy account might be tied to a parent’s email, a primary mobile number, a Google or Apple ID, or even a credit card.
Pivoting from a toy’s cloud logs or companion app to a parent’s online presence is extremely easy for investigators - and frighteningly easy for attackers. This creates a situation where a child’s toy becomes the entry point to the entire family’s digital world.
Reducing the OSINT Risks of AI Toys
The OSINT risks of AI toys are partly built-in; whether intentionally through oversharing features, or by accident through leaky infrastructure and data breaches. Here’s how AI data becomes available to OSINT investigators, what they often uncover - and how to keep your family safe.
Cloud Storage and Syncing
Many AI toys upload voice recordings or transcripts to the cloud for processing. But sometimes, these servers are insecure. In several real-world cases, millions of voice messages from children and parents were stored online in an insecure database - exposing them to anyone who cares to look.
Investigators reviewing these exposures have found bedtime routines, parental arguments, identifying information spoken aloud, and even children chatting about their school, family, and friends.
Disconnect the Toy: Not physically, but digitally. Using a secondary email to register companion apps reduces the chance of pivot attacks, and placing the toy on a guest network isolates it from other household devices. Disable cloud services if possible, and keep the device out of sensitive environments..
Community Features
Some AI toy ecosystems let children share photos, drawings, or audio clips publicly. Although intended as cute social features, these galleries sometimes reveal room layouts, personal names and background objects. AI toys can even spy on you in ways you don’t expect - watch out for geolocation metadata embedded in image captures, as these can easily pinpoint your child’s location.
Be Aware: Parents should treat AI toys like smart home devices rather than playthings. The first step is recognising that an AI toy is, effectively, an internet-connected recording device designed to become your child’s confidant. Explain this to your child.
Data Breaches
The toy industry has a long track record of weak security practices, failing to encrypt data properly. When breaches occur, they often expose extremely sensitive datasets, including children’s names, their recorded conversations, parent emails, and developmental analytics. For OSINT investigators, this creates rich new sources of information. For malicious actors, it creates highly vulnerable targets.
Wipe Your Data: Clearing recorded data in the toy’s app - if the vendor allows it - removes historical logs from cloud storage. Make sure you do this regularly. Also, anonymise your kids data; have them use a toy-specific pseudonym when they speak to it, for example.
Weak Privacy Protection
Being new to the cybersecurity space, many toy companies have flimsy privacy policies for their AI toys. Some companies have already been found to be in violation of the United States COPPA child privacy rules, and have been caught in the act of third-party data sharing. Low-end tech will often skip security measures to cut costs, making your child’s data even more vulnerable.
Know Your Rights: Read up on child privacy laws in your local jurisdiction. Many AI toys are made cheaply overseas, so they may not be compliant with data protection regulations in your country. In turn, always read the privacy policy carefully before accepting the terms and conditions.
Playing with OSINT: How Can Investigators Use OSINT from AI Toys?
Although the ethical implications are huge, it’s important to understand how the data from AI toys is actually used in OSINT investigations. Let’s put on our investigation (Santa) hats, to see how OSINT pros could use AI toy data in a not-so-festive operation.
Pivoting
As mentioned above, pivoting from a toy account to a parent’s whole online identity is a real possibility with AI toys. In fact, it’s the backbone of AI toy OSINT; if you consider that email addresses are one of the most powerful data points to bring into play, and they’re often associated with a toy account… It's not hard to see the opportunity for an intrepid OSINT investigator.
Metadata analysis
Audio or image uploads may contain time stamps, device IDs, or other crucial metadata. Even if you think the data your toy has recorded is innocuous, it could still give investigators proof of your location, routine and day-to-day schedule.
Long-form interactions
Investigators also collect OSINT from long-form interactions. Hours-long recordings or transcripts from an AI toy can establish a detailed behavioural profile: what time a child wakes up, how often they use the toy, who they mention repeatedly, what language they speak at home, how they describe their environment. This can corroborate conclusions investigators already have, like the parent’s home location or economic status.
Breach intelligence
When a toy vendor is breached, investigators (and unfortunately, attackers) can often reconstruct an entire family’s digital footprint from just that one seemingly harmless device. Plus, they can stay completely compliant with privacy law thanks to integrated OSINT tools.
The Future of OSINT AI Toys
Right now, AI toys are a bit of Christmas fun. But with each passing festive season, the tech behind them is becoming more and more sophisticated - and less and less well-regulated. Tech advances will make toys feel even more “alive,” but they’ll also create records of children’s growth, personality development, and daily habits stretching back years. We don’t know yet what this will mean for kids’ online lives - but if they stay unsecured, these datasets will be some of the most sensitive, and exploitable, OSINT materials ever created.
