A lawsuit brought against Bose in Chicago, Illinois, alleges that some of its products spy on users and sell that information to third parties, particularly those that are compatible with the Bose Connect Android app. The lawsuit brought forth by Bose customer Kyle Zak is aiming to win an injunction to halt all relate data collection, and is asking for millions of dollars in damages for all buyers of Bose products that are connected to the alleged scheme. The full list includes six products in total, spanning Bose’s QuietComfort 35 and QuietControl 30, as well as parts of the SoundLink and SoundSport lineups. What they all have in common, of course, is the ability to connect to Bose’s mobile app.
According to Zak, when he downloaded the Bose Connect app and hooked up his Bose QuietComfort 35 headphones, he was not presented with the app’s privacy policy. Because of this, he did not learn that the app hands out user information until after he had been using it, the plaintiff says. Zak found that the app passes information to a number of entities, including Segment.io, whose website doesn’t hide the fact that they’re sending customer data to other parties. The privacy policy for the Bose Connect app specifically says that it collects and distributes “all available media information” from users, which presumably means everything that they listen to. The complaint states that user’s listening habits can reveal a lot of information about an individual, claiming that Bose’s policy represents a major privacy violation.
When initiating the app, users enter their name, email address, and the serial number of their Bose product. They are not shown the privacy policy before using the app and must look for it manually. According to Zak’s legal representative, that policy does not specifically mention data collection. The lawsuit was brought against Bose on Wednesday and has yet to move to trial. Due to the nature of the lawsuit, it could potentially become a fully-fledged class action affair, though it remains to be seen how the situation will develop. An update on the lawsuit is expected to follow in the coming weeks.