Privacy Update

They are going to record everything for 20 seconds locally, then over write if no "wake up" word recognised.
The PLAY5 has microphones too.
Thanks for the information. I meant to refer to the idea that Sonos could constantly be recording everything from your home and transferring that up to their servers.

On a personal level, I don't really count cached data as recorded, any more than I consider things in RAM to be saved.

It has been stated repeatedly that the current Play:5 microphones are not a far-field array and thus will not be used for any voice control process. Future Sonod devices may have far-field array mics, but the current units do not have the capability.

As with a fair number of the functional items this isn't about support but about customer use. By collecting how you listen to your data Sonos can tell how they should be spending their resources. If no one is using their NAS to stream then they shouldn't be spending development dollars on it. It's incredibly valuable for them, and I can't imagine how it actually causes the end user harm for them to know. Car companies are doing a lot of this type of collection, but again, many people don't know about it.


And I think the reverse holds true. As a consumer, it's helpful to let Sonos know just how you use your NAS, and that they would lose favor if they started de-supporting it (I don't mean remove the function, but no new features and dedicated resources to support). If they didn't collect this data, then they have 4 options.

1 - Take an educated guess.
2 - Do some sort of customer survey, which is going to cost money.
3 - Pay some market research firm to provide them the data.
4 - Assume that this forum represents the general consumer and follow the advice of whoever complains the most.

None of these 3 options are going to be as reliable as just collecting the data from you. And of course, it's cheaper. Of course, as consumers, we aren't that concerned about Sonos costs. However, they cannot pass on costs to the consumer if they do not have those costs to begin with.

Note: To be clear, I get that Sonos needs data on what non-Sonos customers want as well, since they want to grow, not just maintain the existing customers. And therefore, using only existing customer data doesn't always give you the best picture. But it does help.