Bose Corp is the latest company trying to make another dollar off of you without your permission. Bose Connect, the companion app to the swag $350 Bose headphones, is not the Jane to your Jack that maybe we all hoped it to be.
Yesterday, Kyle Zak filed a lawsuit against Bose Corp claiming that the Bose Connect app has been collecting users's data and selling it to third-party advertisers without permission.
Bose Connect is a free app for iOS and Android, with 500,000 installs on the Google Play store, and a pretty solid rating of 3.4.
In light of this troubling news, Bose Connect's ratings have started to drop with users saying that the app is really just spyware fit for collecting a user's music preferences, podcasts, or any other audio, and then selling it to advertisers.
Really now, in this day and age, should we even be surprised? It seems like everywhere we go there is another company trying to make another dollar off of our personal data.
According to Zak, in an interview with Reuters, all the media information from the app is sent to third parties such as Segment, a site that promises to collect all of a company's customer data and "send it anywhere." Which just sounds so great, I mean, who wouldn't want their data spread across the world wide web without their permission?
People should be uncomfortable with it. 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.
After buying his new headphones, Zak was instructed by Bose to get the most out of his headphones by downloading the Bose Connect app. Then, he was required to provide his name, email address, and the serial number of the product he purchased.
Now, Zak is suing Bose for millions of dollars in damages for the company's headphones and speakers that connect to Bose's data-collecting app. This includes Bose's QuietComfort 35, QuietControl 30, SoundLink Around-Ear Wireless Headphones II, SoundLink Color II, SoundSport Wireless, and SoundSport Pulse Wireless.
According to Dore, the Connect app does not explicitly state the app's privacy policy when a user signs up, nor does its privacy policy list anything about collecting data from a customer. Zak and his lawyer are seeking to put an end to Bose's data collection, which is a violation of consumer rights.
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