Bose headphones spy on listeners: lawsuit (2017)

Re:Bose headphones spy on listeners: lawsuit (2017) by EmilStenstrom on Sunday May 26, 2019 @10:18AM (#20015047)

If you start the app (Bose Connect, iOS), there's a setting called "Privacy Policy & Settings". There's one option there, which disables "Share data with Bose". I'm not saying that everyone will find it, but at least it's a solution for people that read Hacker News and wants to keep using the app.

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Re:Bose headphones spy on listeners: lawsuit (2017) by jwr on Sunday May 26, 2019 @02:21PM (#20016488)

A better solution might be to get the Sony WH1000XM3 headphones, which do not attempt to spy on you, and are in general better.

I am getting increasingly annoyed by the fact that buying anything is becoming a minefield: you have to actively scan for attempts to screw you over, and every company out there will actively try to screw you over. This goes on all over the place: think airplane ticket pricing (with all the "fees" added later), buying rental car insurance, extended warranties, security systems that suddenly enable a secret microphone, and headphones that report everything you do. There seems to be no penalty: if a company is caught doing that, they don't suffer much. They should.

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Re:Bose headphones spy on listeners: lawsuit (2017) by jake_the_third on Sunday May 26, 2019 @08:55PM (#20018670)

> I am getting increasingly annoyed by the fact that buying anything is becoming a minefield

Not only that, but they keep repopulating the minefield with new mines after you've spent considerable time clearing them. (Google, I really don't want you to use wifi to "improve" location precision and silently re-enabling the setting after a system update isn't going to change my mind.)

One way or another, this has to stop.

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Re:Bose headphones spy on listeners: lawsuit (2017) by fartcannon on Sunday May 26, 2019 @02:31PM (#20016553)

You then have to trust that the app respects your settings. Years later when it's discovered that it doesn't, they can claim that it was a bug. Woops. Sorry.

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Re:Bose headphones spy on listeners: lawsuit (2017) by bose1231 on Sunday May 26, 2019 @11:40AM (#20015449)

I believe this was only later added after it became public that Bose was data collecting.

(I own the QC35 ver. 1)

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Re:Bose headphones spy on listeners: lawsuit (2017) by jmiserez on Sunday May 26, 2019 @03:59PM (#20017088)

It was added in version 4.1.0 according to this post [1], after the lawsuit was filed.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/bose/comments/690592/bose_connect_a...

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Re:Bose headphones spy on listeners: lawsuit (2017) by craftyguy on Sunday May 26, 2019 @11:25AM (#20015365)

Why do you need a special app to use headphones? Is this really what the future looks like?

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Re:Bose headphones spy on listeners: lawsuit (2017) by POTUS on Sunday May 26, 2019 @11:51AM (#20015519)

They have some actual features in there like find my buds, music sharing and noise cancellation controls. Also there’s some settings adjustments like standby times, connections and voice prompts. It’s actual pretty useful.

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Re:Bose headphones spy on listeners: lawsuit (2017) by RKearney on Sunday May 26, 2019 @11:36AM (#20015427)

You don’t. The last pair of Bose headphones I had came with instructions to download the app which I just ignored. The headphones worked perfectly fine without the app.

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Re:Bose headphones spy on listeners: lawsuit (2017) by paranoidrobot on Sunday May 26, 2019 @11:49AM (#20015504)

You need it if you want to turn off or change the noise cancellation mode.

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Re:Bose headphones spy on listeners: lawsuit (2017) by hckrnwsthrwwy on Sunday May 26, 2019 @02:11PM (#20016427)

There is a button that cycles through high-low-no noise cancellation on mine

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Re:Bose headphones spy on listeners: lawsuit (2017) by amlozano on Monday May 27, 2019 @12:20PM (#20023212)

When you buy a new pair these days, pressing that button causes the headphones to say "Configure the action button in the Bose Connect App"

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Re:Bose headphones spy on listeners: lawsuit (2017) by rconti on Sunday May 26, 2019 @03:11PM (#20016800)

Not on the first gen, however, I had no use for the app and deleted it after the first time I played with it. My plan was to download the app whenever I wanted to do something, then immediately delete.

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Re:Bose headphones spy on listeners: lawsuit (2017) by tty2300 on Monday May 27, 2019 @12:47AM (#20019543)

By default the button is set to use voice controls with your phone. The app let's you make it do anc controls

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Re:Bose headphones spy on listeners: lawsuit (2017) by stunt on Sunday May 26, 2019 @01:16PM (#20016029)

Updating the firmware.

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