this post was submitted on 01 Dec 2025
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Yes, the NSA really did ban Furby from its premises in 1999 (feddit.uk)
submitted 2 weeks ago by heythatsprettygood@feddit.uk to c/historymemes@piefed.social
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In case you were wondering, yes, GCHQ banned them too. This incident also led to one of the funniest FAA papers ever.

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[–] makeshiftreaper@lemmy.world 47 points 2 weeks ago (23 children)

On top of them just being really fucking annoying, especially in a cube farm, they're also small battery powered devices with a speaker. AKA: a perfect listening tool hider. If you have classified projects of course security is going to ban them

[–] titter@lemmy.world 17 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

They also "learned" and had the ability to repeat back some of what it hears, not so good for protecting secrets

[–] makeshiftreaper@lemmy.world 22 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Common misconception, they didn't repeat anything. They just gradually spoke more of whatever language they were in. The only thing that was kind of like learning is they could react to is other nearby furbies

Just to common sense check this: around this time the video games Seaman and Hey You! Pikachu came out with dedicated microphone accessories, had a video game console to power them, and they barely functioned. You think a $35 plastic toy will pull it off?

[–] higgsboson@piefed.social 8 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

At the time Furbies were popular, there were other stuffed animals that did the recording and talk-back thing. Dont seem reliable enough for spy work, though.

[–] glimse@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yak bak

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I had a yak bakwards. Which at least had some kind of toy function, in that you could play the 3 or 4 second recording forwards or backwards. That was minutes of entertainment.

[–] glimse@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

I had both and would use the original to "back up" my clips

[–] makeshiftreaper@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

Recording and playing back absolutely could be done, but learning words the way people said they were at the time was probably too tricky

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