If you thought that the Bose range of headphone are all about superior listening pleasure only, you might be in for a surprise; for a new lawsuit against the company claims it could have spied on its user’s listening habits as well. Worse still, Bose is also accused of selling the data it collected to third party firms.
The lawsuit has been filed by one Kyle Zak who had recently bought the Bose QC35 noise canceling wireless headphones. True to the company lineage, the headphones are inarguably one of the better ones out there even though it costs $350.
So far so good though the problem cropped up with the accompanying Bose Connect app that Bose insists on installing on your device to allow for better listening experience. Not that the headphones won’t function with the support of the app though some features are available only when the app is in place.
The app, in turn, asks for some simple information when signing up, which includes your name, email id, phone number, and the serial number of the product and so on. Now with the app believed to collect all the media related information pertaining to the user, those again can be linked to the personal details of the user.
Needless to say, such information can be a gold mine for marketing firms and Bose is accused of selling those to interested parties. One such happens to be Segment.io, a San Francisco-based firm that boasts on its site of their expertise in collecting customer data before sending it ‘anywhere’.
Bose is yet to come out with its official response but is expected to defend its position in the case. While such user information helps marketing firms to go for targeted marketing of their products or services, companies need to declare what sort of information they are collecting or what they eventually do with it.
Such instances again aren’t rare too with companies often found indulging in spying on their users to collect their usage details. Another consumer electronics company, Vizio too was found collecting user information discreetly just a few weeks back with the case still being in the courts.
