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Connected devices are spreading throughout the bathroom, and this increasingly wide stance has increased the need for cybersecurity precautions to get ahead.
Bemis Manufacturing’s Bio Bidet debuted a new Bluetooth-controlled toilet seat fixture that’s controlled from your phone at this year’s CES. The Bemis Living app, which controls the device, eliminates the need for yet another piece of hardware sprinkled in among your toiletries.
“The purpose of the app is to replace the need for the remote,” Bio Bidet Digital Marketing Coordinator Anna Xiong told IT Brew. “Most people bring their phone to the bathroom; it’s one less thing you have to hold in your hand.”
Private parts. Given the nature of the app and the sensitivity of where and how it’s used, there are some protections built in, including skin detection to avoid the spray going off unexpectedly.
Bio Bidet isn’t the first company to look at cybersecurity concerns for the toilet. At last year’s CES, IT Brew talked with French company Withings about their urinalysis device and how it tracked health data and kept it secure. And this year, Kohler debuted a $10,500 smart toilet, part of a suite of new devices.
But with a product as potentially physically sensitive as an app-controlled bidet, there are some security concerns—notably that someone in the home could prank the person on the toilet.
Detected. Bio Bidet has a proximity sensor that the company’s marketing director, James Amburgey, told IT Brew is meant to add another layer of protection.
“There is a proximity sensor, and we’ve been really conscious of the radius in which it operates to help mitigate some of that,” Amburgey said.
The bidet seat is also end-to-end encrypted, Amburgey said. And users can utilize the app to control air, seat temperature, and intensity. Plus, Xiong told us, “if you have a cleansing style that you like, then you can save it” for future use.
As products like Bio Bidet try to differentiate themselves and make a splash, protecting data is something all new companies will need to get behind.