An Illinois resident named Kyle Zak filed a lawsuit against Bose, a leading player in audio space, in federal court in Chicago on the grounds that the company uses its app to extract user information like their music, podcasts and other audio they listen to, hence, violating the privacy rights by allegedly selling this information outside without any permission.
As per a report by Reuters, Zak claims that Bose Connect app which users download to get the best out of their Bose headphones or speakers, can extract information from their smartphone and send it to services like Segment.io which in turn is tipped to collect customer’s data and ‘send it anywhere’.
“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,” read the report by Reuters.
Zak believes that Bose is selling out private customer data to other companies in order to rank up its profit figures. After spending $350 (approx. Rs 22,600) on his QuietComfort 35 Headphones, Zak was suggested to download the Bose Connect app but he was amused by the fact that the app actually sends crucial information to other third-party services.
The complaint filed against Bose from Zak read,” Audio choices offer an incredible amount of insight into customers’ personalities, behaviour, politics and religious views, citing as an example that a person who listens to Muslim prayers might,very likely, be a Muslim.”
Bose is yet to respond to the allegation, however, Zak is seeking a redemption of millions of dollars as damages for people who use Bose headphones and speakers such as QuietComfort 35, QuietControl 30, SoundLink Around-Ear Wireless Headphones II, SoundLink Color II, SoundSport Wireless and SoundSport Pulse Wireless. Further, he also wants Bose to put an end to any such practice, immediately.
Meanwhile, Dore, who is representing Zak, in this case, says that not a lot of people go through privacy agreements while signing up and shockingly, the privacy agreement says nothing of this sort.
Something similar to this was put up againstWhatsApp last year when the chat service was accused of sharing user data with Facebook without seeking any permission from its users. Privacy Agreements and Permissions are of much more importance than we think so the next time you sign up for a service, do look at the privacy agreements for a change.