Did Furbys Spy on Us? 6. Unboxed
Joanne McNally Investigates
BBC
4.3 • 598 Ratings
🗓️ 9 October 2024
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It's been a long journey, but finally Joanne is ready to close the book on Furby. She's learned about their rise to fame, and the rumours of espionage. And she's done her best to de-bunk them, by intrusively opening one up for examination, speaking to experts, and tracking down the man behind the marketing. But as the sun sets on her quest, she still needs to find out why the rumour began in the first place. And she needs to speak to David Hampton - the inventor.
That journey takes her via TikTok and FaceSwap - two apps which, Joanne discovers, have been linked to data gathering. Joanne is already fearful of what data she's sharing online, and her browsing habits have radically changed. But one last browse deep into the web reveals a stunning new find - a dossier of evidence which includes the original NSA memo about the Furby... and within it, the real reason it was banned by security experts.
Convinced that she finally understands what went on, Joanne concludes by meeting David Hampton. She learns about the Furby origins, little-known facts about it's powers, and some secrets about the brains behind it. But was Furby designed to spy? David has a surprising answer in store.
A What's The Story podcast for BBC Sounds
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:05.6 | Just to warn you, before you start listening, |
| 0:08.1 | there will be swearing and some sexual language in this series |
| 0:11.3 | because I'm a sweary sexual kind of person. |
| 0:13.8 | I know what I am, I swear like a soldier, |
| 0:15.6 | I'll try to keep it to a minimum. |
| 0:17.0 | But just in case you've got very sensitive ears, |
| 0:19.2 | you can't say I didn't flag it. |
| 0:23.0 | When the rumour mail started spinning that Furbies were spying on people, |
| 0:29.7 | what was your take on that? Were you delighted? Were you appalled? Were you thrilled? |
| 0:36.1 | As I approached the end of my investigation, there are still a few questions left unanswered, |
| 0:41.7 | hidden beneath the gold that I've already dug up. |
| 0:44.8 | But as I said at the start of this journey, I leave no stone unturned in my pursuit of the |
| 0:50.3 | truth. |
| 0:51.1 | And the truth was just around the corner. |
| 0:54.0 | We're talking about intelligent departments. It's kind of like an oxymoron that weren't. of the truth. And the truth was just around the corner. |
| 0:56.2 | We're talking about intelligent departments. |
| 0:58.0 | It's kind of like an oxymoron that weren't very bright. They could have talked |
| 1:00.0 | to me, but nobody ever talked to me about it. |
| 1:03.4 | This is a |
| 1:04.2 | What's the Story Sounds production for BBC Sounds. |
| 1:07.4 | I'm Joanne McNally, and this is |
... |
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