Bose headphones have been spying on customers, lawsuit claims

[enhanced_deficit]

Bose headphones have been spying on customers, lawsuit claims




By Hayley Tsukayama April 19 at 5:24 PM

A pair of QuietComfort 35 headphones, from Bose — one of several products listed in a lawsuit alleging the company spied on users through their headphones. (Courtesy of Bose)

Bose knows what you're listening to.
At least that's the claim of a proposed class-action lawsuit filed late Tuesday in Illinois that accuses the high-end audio equipment maker of spying on its users and selling information about their listening habits without permission.
The main plaintiff in the case is Kyle Zak, who bought a $350 pair of wireless Bose headphones last month. He registered the headphones, giving the company his name and email address, as well as the headphone serial number. And he download the Bose Connect app, which the company said would make the headphones more useful by adding functions such as the ability to customize the level of noise cancellation in the headphones.
But it turns out the app was also telling Bose a lot more about Zak than he bargained for.
According to the complaint, Bose collected information that was not covered by its privacy policy. This included the names of the audio files its customers were listening to:

Defendant programmed its Bose Connect app to continuously record the contents of the electronic communications that users send to their Bose Wireless Products from their smartphones, including the names of the music and audio tracks they select to play along with the corresponding artist and album information, together with the Bose Wireless Product’s serial numbers (collectively, “Media Information”).

Combined with the registration information, that gave Bose access to personally identifiable information that Zak and other never agreed to share, the complaint says. Listening data can be very personal, particularly if users are listening to podcasts or other audio files that could shade in information about their political preferences, health conditions or other interests, the complaint argues.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...awsuit-claims/

[timosman]

Never used the app.

[DamianTV]

What? You listened to an Alex Jones podcast? You must be a terrorizer!

Even this trivial sounding collection of data WILL beyond a shadow of a doubt be used against you, in order to find who opposes the Status Quo and keep everyone else on their prescribed daily dosage of SOMA.

[TheTexan]

It has an app?

Neat, will have to give that a try

[Anti Federalist]

Government never had to do a thing...

Self driving cars under total surveillance, homes festooned with surveillance inside and out,cashless economy, total surveillance through the "internet of things"...at each step AmeriKunts fell all over themselves to buy the chains that enslave them.

[oyarde]

Anything that costs as much as a Bose product or a self driving car is going to be equipped with spyware . What did you think you were paying for ?

[TheTexan]

Government never had to do a thing...

Self driving cars under total surveillance, homes festooned with surveillance inside and out,cashless economy, total surveillance through the "internet of things"...at each step AmeriKunts fell all over themselves to buy the chains that enslave them.

But now I can order a pizza without even getting off the couch. Even if my cell phone is all the way on the other side of the room.

[enhanced_deficit]

That is why it is important to keep your headphone's anti-virus up to date.

http://www.ibtimes.com/malware-turns...py-you-2450594

[DamianTV]

Anything that costs as much as a Bose product or a self driving car is going to be equipped with spyware . What did you think you were paying for ?

Slaves must pay for their own chains and prisons for human farming to remain profitable.

[ChristianAnarchist]

Government never had to do a thing...

Self driving cars under total surveillance, homes festooned with surveillance inside and out,cashless economy, total surveillance through the "internet of things"...at each step AmeriKunts fell all over themselves to buy the chains that enslave them.

Unfortunately true. It's only going to get worse as we move into total immersion in 3d vision and tactile feedback. People will be living in their "own world" doing things that could not be done in the real world. Like the matrix you will be able to fly between buildings or into space, you can enjoy an orgy with the cutest ladies (or guys)... It will be an environment that will be hard to resist but of course, every desire or action recorded and you can expect that even though there are no true "victims" in your virtual world you can bet the goonerment will invent "laws" that you can be prosecuted for crossing some virtual line of offense.

[DamianTV]

Unfortunately true. It's only going to get worse as we move into total immersion in 3d vision and tactile feedback. People will be living in their "own world" doing things that could not be done in the real world. Like the matrix you will be able to fly between buildings or into space, you can enjoy an orgy with the cutest ladies (or guys)... It will be an environment that will be hard to resist but of course, every desire or action recorded and you can expect that even though there are no true "victims" in your virtual world you can bet the goonerment will invent "laws" that you can be prosecuted for crossing some virtual line of offense.

Exactly. Govt's No #1 customer is Govt, NOT people! They only push forth these new laws to remind us how much we need them to tell us what to do!