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Trending Lyricist I
August 30, 2017

Privacy Concerns

  • August 30, 2017
  • 39 replies
  • 6245 views
I bought the Sonos 5 to stream music period!. If I wanted a snooping, listening always on "assistant" I would have bought the Google Home or the Amazon Alexa. If I am forced to add this capability to my Sonos 5 with a mandatory "upgrade" I would rather brick the device and simply use it as a Powered Speaker...
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39 replies

jgatie
August 31, 2017

This has also always been the case, if I remember correctly somewhere around the release of 6.0 Spotify would stop working if you didn't update since the way how Spotify connected had changed.


Yup. The same with acknowledging the new AWS security measures. Once again, some silly website is fishing for clicks by stating Sonos' privacy policy has changed into a cross between Orwell's Big Brother and Beria's NKVD, when it really hasn't changed at all. Except to reflect the fact that Sonos needs to share the information it has collected all along with their voice control partners. Voice control which is completely voluntary and must be explicitly activated by the user.

In other words, acknowledging the privacy policy is required, but any of the new data collection announced by that policy is 100% voluntary. Truly a tempest in a teapot.
Prodigy I
August 31, 2017
I have a product development background. The mics were designed in for a long-term product goal.

Those two sentences don't make sense together. If you worked in PD then you'd know goals change. There's nothing unusual about component use change, and the implication of anything else is contrived.


You sir are a troll. Give me your ip address I have something I would like to give you.
...
I have worked in IT Security since 2011 in both commercial and government agencies protecting infrastructure against such data/metadata exfiltration attacks.

So you went from script kiddie threats to security expert in the span of a few posts?

Your ostensible, short security background notwithstanding you're making multiple inaccurate points. The most egregious is suggesting that Sonos has some sort of malicious intent with the devices failing to work. This is simply reality. If you stop updating your operating system then applications won't work either.

It's not naive to express skepticism about murky, undefined future threats. In my view Sonos has been upfront about the update, and they have clearly communicated the reasons for it. I'm unable to see how, if you actually read the policy/posts from Sonos, you could get a different understanding.
Trending Lyricist I
August 31, 2017
When the US office of National Intelligence add a new category to Intel TEMPINT to characterise the threat of Metadata and IoT then we all need to pay attention

https://www.wired.com/2017/01/connected-devices-give-spies-powerful-new-way-surveil
jgatie
August 31, 2017
None of which has to do with Sonos' privacy statement.
chicks
August 31, 2017
When the US office of National Intelligence add a new category to Intel TEMPINT to characterise the threat of Metadata and IoT then we all need to pay attention

https://www.wired.com/2017/01/connected-devices-give-spies-powerful-new-way-surveil


Hi, Kellyanne! :8
Smilja
August 31, 2017
[...] Posted on SlashDot
"Sonos has confirmed that existing customers will not be given an option to opt out of its new privacy policy, leaving customers with sound systems that may eventually "cease to function".

NOT the Sonos units will cease to function, the RESPECTIVE SERVICE will (e.g. Audible or Alexa).
»And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space, Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind.« (›Windmills Of Your Mind‹ [1967]. Music by Michel Legrand ; English lyrics written by Alan & Marilyn Bergman)
Trending Lyricist I
August 31, 2017
I yearn for a simpler world where music was played without commercials, where phones would not track you, where updates meant device replacement where cars.needed driving and data centers did not run advanced analytics. I guess you are all in love with what Sonos is doing and I'm sure the company means well. However with the constant aquistions of technology companies and the sucking sound of data from the Audio system I for one choose not to be part of it.

For sale Sonos 5 with original packaging...
jgatie
August 31, 2017
I guess that begs the question: Why in H-E-Double Hockey Sticks did you agree to the privacy statement in the first place? Those nefarious snooping microphones didn't appear in an update, they were there when you bought the units. The same evil corporate data sucking you are afraid of now was going on at the time you bought the P:5's. So what has changed? Have your eyes really been opened by an internet news story riddled with inaccuracies?
Prodigy I
August 31, 2017

For sale Sonos 5 with original packaging...

Sorry, I never buy electronics secondhand because I'm afraid people have installed surveillance equipment in them.
jgatie
August 31, 2017

Sorry, I never buy electronics secondhand because I'm afraid people have installed surveillance equipment in them.


Or something even more nefarious, given the Teddy K-like anti-technology rant above. 😉