December 2, 2025
Welcome to Flushgate
Kohler Can Access Pictures from "End-to-End Encrypted" Toilet Camera
Company says it can see your toilet pics to “help” you; commenters yell “that’s not private”
TLDR: Kohler’s smart toilet gadget touted “end‑to‑end encryption,” but the company says it can decrypt images on its servers and may use de‑identified data to train AI. Commenters roasted the claim, joking about “Smart Pipe” and debating health benefits versus a huge privacy red flag.
The internet is swirling after Kohler’s $600-a-month toilet add-on promised “end‑to‑end encryption” for… bowl photos, then admitted it can decrypt images on its own servers to run the service—and may use de‑identified data to train AI. Commenters immediately dubbed it Flushgate, with one calling it “the crappiest data source for AI yet,” and another howling, “they actually built Smart Pipe.”
The biggest outrage: the “end‑to‑end” claim. People explained in plain terms that real end‑to‑end encryption means only you and your chosen recipient can see the data—no company in the middle. Here, Kohler is the “other end,” so the company can peek. One user summed it up: the marketing is “abusing a security term,” while another snarked, “Which ends did they mean?” The vibe: not a hack, just a word game.
But there’s a messy debate under the jokes. Some argue it’s obvious the company must access data to give health insights; others say that’s exactly the problem when the “data” is literal toilet pics, now potentially fueling AI. Skeptics asked how any AI can learn without medical labels, while privacy hawks worry “de‑identified” is a leaky promise. The price tag, the camera, the buzzword soup—this one’s got the internet flushed with takes.
Key Points
- •Kohler’s Dekota toilet-mounted device collects images and data to provide health insights and was launched in October.
- •Kohler’s marketing claims “end-to-end encryption,” but company emails confirm data is decrypted and processed on Kohler’s servers.
- •The article clarifies that true E2EE prevents service providers from accessing data and is typical of messaging apps like WhatsApp, iMessage, and Signal.
- •Kohler states data is encrypted at rest and in transit (HTTPS), and systems aim to limit employee access to identifiable images.
- •Kohler says its algorithms are trained on de-identified data, indicating collected data may be used to train AI models.