Bose headphones spy on listeners: lawsuit
Source: Reuters
Bose Corp spies on its wireless headphone customers by using an app that tracks the music, podcasts and other audio they listen to, and violates their privacy rights by selling the information without permission, a lawsuit charged.
The complaint filed on Tuesday by Kyle Zak in federal court in Chicago seeks an injunction to stop Bose's "wholesale disregard" for the privacy of customers who download its free Bose Connect app from Apple Inc or Google Play stores to their smartphones.
"People should be uncomfortable with it," Christopher Dore, a lawyer representing Zak, said in an interview. "People put headphones on their head because they think it's private, but they can be giving out information they don't want to share."
Bose did not respond on Wednesday to requests for comment on the proposed class action case. The Framingham, Massachusetts-based company has said annual sales top $3.5 billion.
Read more: http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN17L2BT
Thor_MN
(11,843 posts)I have Bose wireless headphones and they connect via Bluetooth to my phone, no app needed.
Since we have the lovely "open workspace" design at my office and the guy 5 feet in front of me hums incessantly when he is not talking a million miles an hour with 4 other developers (take your fricking meeting to a room), my headphones are a sanity saver - the noise cancellation really works.
NWCorona
(8,541 posts)If you don't have it already loaded you should be fine.
mr_lebowski
(33,643 posts)Anyone using any particular 'app' to play/stream music should be prepared (and probably already agree to it when installing said app) for their listening habits to be uploaded somewhere and therefore non-private.
You don't think ITunes keeps track of, and tells Apple, what you're playing when you use it? Spotify/Google Play? Windows Groove?
You'd likely have to use something OLD like Winamp, and be listening to only music physically present on your PC ... to avoid something like this happening. That, or seek out an app that specifically says 'Private Listening Only' as they'd market it that way.
WhiteTara
(29,692 posts)without consent make this null and void?
NWCorona
(8,541 posts)Maybe they are trying to get it in under the wire?
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)that *corporate* spying/invasions of privacy are 100% ok, so meh...
Dr Hobbitstein
(6,568 posts)No highs, no lows? Must be Bose.
ProfessorGAC
(64,827 posts)But, it's true. I remember the 901's and thought that the speakers i had at that time sounded better and there were around 1/3rd the price.
And their sound reinforcement system REQUIRED a subwoofer, and some people added ring bullet radiators for highs. We used them for stage monitors, but it was only vocals, a little guitar and little keyboard, so they were fine. But not for a whole sound reinforcement array.