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Bose headphones spy on listeners - lawsuit

By Jonathan Stempel
April 19, 2017
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By Jonathan Stempel
(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.

Zak's lawsuit was the latest to accuse companies of trying to boost profit by quietly amassing customer information, and then selling it or using it to solicit more business.
After paying $350 for his QuietComfort 35 headphones, Zak said he took Bose's suggestion to "get the most out of your headphones" by downloading its app, and providing his name, email address and headphone serial number in the process.
But the Illinois resident said he was surprised to learn that Bose sent "all available media information" from his smartphone to third parties such as Segment.io, whose website promises to collect customer data and "send it anywhere."

Audio choices offer "an incredible amount of insight" into customers' personalities, behavior, politics and religious views, citing as an example that a person who listens to Muslim prayers might "very likely" be a Muslim, the complaint said.
"Defendants' conduct demonstrates a wholesale disregard for consumer privacy rights," the complaint said.

Zak is seeking millions of dollars of damages for buyers of headphones and speakers, including QuietComfort 35, QuietControl 30, SoundLink Around-Ear Wireless Headphones II, SoundLink Color II, SoundSport Wireless and SoundSport Pulse Wireless.
He also wants a halt to the data collection, which he said violates the federal Wiretap Act and Illinois laws against eavesdropping and consumer fraud.

Dore, a partner at Edelson PC, said customers do not see the Bose app's user service and privacy agreements when signing up, and the privacy agreement says nothing about data collection.
Edelson specializes in suing technology companies over alleged privacy violations.
The case is Zak v Bose Corp, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, No. 17-02928.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by David Gregorio)

unreal. but, we know they do it all. and, sell our info. and people always thought just vendors sell info when they go down. scum vendors.

and that google home device, that listens to u all the time and when u say: google, what date is easter this week? it answers. so, its always on. and people r complaining its doing advertising for lunch foods at lunch time.

it is no friend of mine to keep in the house. no privacy at all. *as if we had some now*


oh, and quite a few murders had a bit of help in prosecuting murderers as The Killers listened to songs entitled: Love my woman but i had to shoot her. Not exact title. There are three cases where LE got the hard drives. Restored what was deleted. And saw killing wife songs. Guilty verdicts. So, If one is a nut job, then one should be concerned about Bose. The rats. Selling the info? They used their reputation as an excellent company for music sound to invade our lives.

(04-20-2017, 04:40 PM)Charon Wrote: [ -> ]unreal.  but, we know they do it all.  and, sell our info.  and people always thought just vendors sell info when they go down.  scum vendors.

and that google home device, that listens to u all the time and when u say:  google, what date is easter this week? it answers.  so, its always on.   and people r complaining its doing advertising for lunch foods at lunch time.

it is no friend of mine to keep in the house.  no privacy at all.  *as if we had some now*


oh, and quite a few murders had a bit of help in prosecuting murderers as The Killers listened to songs entitled:  Love my woman but i had to shoot her.  Not exact title.  There are three cases where LE got the hard drives.  Restored what was deleted.  And saw killing wife songs.  Guilty verdicts.  So, If one is a nut job, then one should be concerned about Bose.  The rats.  Selling the info?  They used their reputation as an excellent company for music sound to invade our lives.

There are many things we have in our homes and cars that spy on us. Even our electric meters (Smart Meters) spy on us.
I have heard that before long, all of our home appliances will be doin' it too, if not already.

I think it's sick. The powers that be are gettin' so paranoid about the citizens of this country finding out what they are up to in the destruction of this country. They're scared to death that more people are wakin' up and they spy on us to try and find out if we are plannin' to fight for our country and freedoms back.

One thing I've noticed about TV that gets me riled up is, seems that every time you change the channel to see what's on, you get commercials. I really am startin' to believe TV's are set to do this. Wouldn't surprise me at all.

Cricket

Gotta say I'm glad I'm too cheap to by Bose. I can't seem to pay more than 10 bucks for a pair of headphones.

Lol, I feel the same way BG82!
Although I did get sent 2 pairs of 100$+ headphones free as part of a bonus from a phone company. Nothing special, TBH. Even with using them on the phone they are meant for. I put them back in the box and just use a standard cheap pair. Hehe

This is very interesting, thank you for posting and sharing, Linville

So Bose can eavesdrop us via their headphones, the CIA can spy on us through our TV's, yet the guy at the McDonald's drive-thru can't hear me say 'no pickles.'

ha, selective listening. that's funny dudcat.