Kohler Dekoda Smart Toilet's Misleading Encryption Claims Raise Privacy Concerns
Kohler Health's Dekoda smart toilet camera, launched in October 2025 and marketed as end-to-end encrypted, reportedly uses misleading language about its encryption. A security researcher found that Kohler can decrypt and access the waste analysis data collected by the device, contrary to what end-to-end encryption typically implies to consumers.
What happened
In October 2025, Kohler Health launched Dekoda, a $599 camera that attaches to toilet rims and uses AI to analyze waste for health insights. Kohler advertised the device as end-to-end encrypted and stated that 'our technology is designed to keep your personal data personal.'
Security researcher Simon Fondrie-Teitler published a blog post questioning Kohler's encryption claims. He found that contrary to the common understanding of end-to-end encryption, Kohler can access and decrypt data collected by the device.
Reported impact
Kohler's marketing claims about end-to-end encryption misled customers about their privacy protections. The company's definition of end-to-end encryption applies only to data in transit between the user's device and Kohler's servers, after which Kohler decrypts the data for analysis.
Index analysis
End-to-end encryption typically means that only the sender and recipient can decrypt data, preventing the service provider from reading it. Kohler's implementation is end-to-end encryption only in the sense that data is encrypted between the user and Kohler as a recipient, not that Kohler cannot access the data.
What Kohler describes as end-to-end encryption is essentially HTTPS encryption between the app and server plus encryption at rest, both standard security practices that do not prevent the company from accessing user data.
Governance controls
Kohler stated that it encrypts data end-to-end in transit as it travels between users' devices and Kohler systems, where it is decrypted and processed to provide and improve the service, and encrypts sensitive user data at rest.
Classification
Sources and evidence
Sources not yet published
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