Baby monitors now want to predict who your kid will become

Nanit's flagship product is a camera bolted above a crib, logging the exact moment a baby's eyes open and close and scoring each night's sleep from zero to 100. The firm that built its brand identity described the job, per Sapna Maheshwari in The New York Times, as "transcending the negative connotations of 'surveillance.'"

Nanit's chief executive calls the product "the child answer" to adult wearables like Oura and Whoop, and wants to track kids from birth through age 10. Its chief technology officer wants to use a baby's motion patterns to explain their personality years later: "Maybe you have a super introverted kid, and you want to understand if some of the motion patterns when they were babies kind of predicted that."

Rival Owlet drew a 2021 FDA warning letter for overselling what its foot sensor could detect in a baby's pulse and oxygen. The comedian John Mulaney recently joked about his own son's setup: three sound machines, a blackout tent, and a nursery locked at 68 degrees, because "any warmer and your infant will die automatically."

Previously:
• Smart devices are watching: how to protect your privacy in a connected home
• "Privacy Not Included": Mozilla's guide to insecure, surveillant gadgets