Posted on 04/20/2017 4:41:39 AM PDT by markomalley
A chap in Chicago is suing headphone maker Bose after discovering how much personal information its app was phoning home to base – this slurped data includes songs listened to, for how long, and when.
The class-action lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the US district court of Illinois by a one Kyle Zak, claims the Bose Connect application, available for iOS and Android, breaks federal wiretap laws, local wiretapping statute and fraud laws, and carries out "intrusion on seclusion," which is also a crime in the state.
Court documents [PDF] state Zak bought himself a pair of $350 (£275) Bose QuietComfort 15 wireless headphones in March, and downloaded the Bose Connect smartphone app that allows the user to control their fancy cans from their mobe.
However, he was shocked to learn that Bose's app collects data on what kind of songs he was listening to, and for how long, along with a personal identifier code. The lawsuit says these records are routed to a data mining firm called Segment.io which advertises that it can "collect all of your customer data and send it anywhere." Zak isn't sure what happens to the gobbled-up information, although argues it is "valuable" to Bose.
"Plaintiff Zak never provided his consent to Bose to monitor, collect, and transmit his Media Information. Nor did Plaintiff ever provide his consent to Bose to disclose his Media Information to any third party, let alone data miner Segment.io," the lawsuit reads.
"Plaintiff Zak would never have purchased his Bose Wireless Product had he known that Defendant would use Bose Connect (which was necessary to access the product's full array of functions and features) to collect, transmit, and disclose his Media Information."
The lawsuit claims that the type of music or podcasts a person listens to can be highly revealing and would tell data miners more information than one might like. Sadly Mr Zak's musical tastes aren't detailed, but we can bet there are some stinkers in there.
To compensate him for his worries, Zak is demanding at least $5m in damages, wants a banning order preventing Bose trampling people's privacy, and wants other folks to join his lawsuit. But he and his lawyers may have overlooked something important.
Here at Vulture West we downloaded the Bose Connect app and while it's certainly very grabby on data – you need to have both GPS and Bluetooth turned on to use it, it claims – there's a section in the software detailing Bose's privacy policy that clearly states that the app collects data and sends it to third parties. It's not nice, not nice at all, but you can't say you're not warned.
As is usual with such policies, simply downloading and running the app is taken as a sign-off on these policies. It also says that it shares anonymized data with third parties, in a section headed: "How we share information with Third Parties."
Under the circumstances Zak may struggle to get his requested multi-million dollar payday. Bose had no comment on the case at the time of going to press. ®
This is the crime, and needs to be made illegal.
The problem for Bose: their software is probably outsourced. Their outsourced software is probably written by creepy dudes on or from the subcontinent. Those creepy dudes have never had girlfriends. Those creepy dudes think nobody is watching them so they can code software to do very bad things.
But, in the end, Bose signed their contract.
I am very happy with my Koss PortaPro.
Yes - they have a wire.
I’m 69 years old and don’t dance with my phones on much anymore.
He’s right to sue. I wouldn’t want anybody to know my secret addiction to Disco Duck.
If you don't read privacy policies or EULAs, you deserve what you get! People laugh at me because I do exactly that, and I've refused to do business with companies like Google because of their onerous policies.
We, as a society, have become apathetic and care more about being entertained than protecting ourselves.
...there’s a section in the software detailing Bose’s privacy policy that clearly states that the app collects data and sends it to third parties.
If there is not a “I do not accept this clause” option, it gets sticky for the company offering the software.
i.e. this guy could still win.
Did "Plaintiff Zac" read every word of the terms of service for the app? Did he read every word of the privacy policy?
If the company didn't have disclosures and consents in their click throughs, they probably do need to fire some management.
I agree in principle, but see my post 8.
In essence, large companies can have perfectly legal clauses in their contracts with their customers, but because they are large, courts tend to see every single contract with a “little guy” as sort of “signed under duress”. It bites them if they ask for stuff that, though legal, is too “unreasonable”.
And in the world we live in today, this is perceived, by most, as unreasonable. They need an “opt out” button on that clause.
Much of the time, if I don’t agree to the EULA, my career is over. As a software engineer I need those programs to do my job, and push “Agree” knowing that whatever it’s in there is less problematic than not having the app at all.
Much of the time, if I don’t agree to the EULA, my career is over. As a software engineer I need those programs to do my job, and push “Agree” knowing that whatever it’s in there is less problematic than not having the app at all.
The only electric device in our home that didn’t come with a pricacy policy is our 10 year old toaster...and I have my doubts about what the toaster is up to whenever the toast takes too long.
There have been plenty of cases where EULAs don’t hold up in court, but that doesn’t stop me from reading them. Some companies even have a little fun with them and hide Easter eggs to see if people are actually reading them.
I confess to reading them too, but I’ve not found any easter eggs.
And I’ve not turned on the mic in my remote to my smart TV because of what is in those EULA’s.
:^(
LOL!
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