True.  It always irks me when people harp on and on about Sonos listening in, or Sonos collecting data, or any other accusations, while we know that 99.9% of those complaining have a device in their pocket that has dozens of apps which are designed from the ground up to harvest data and sell it.  The financial paradigm is literally “The user is the product”, compiling and processing every website I visit, every store I enter, every toll I pay, every banking transaction I make, every text I send, every feed I read, every post I make, and thousands more data points I don’t even know about; yet people are worried about Sonos knowing I listen to soft jazz at dinner time.

Sonos wouldn’t know what time you eat dinner? 

Don’t laugh.  I actually had a conversation with a security/privacy obsessed poster who screamed from the rooftops that a hacker could get ahold of Sonos’ data and know from their listening habits when their home was occupied and when it was not, using that data to plan a burglary.  My reply was “You mean instead of parking outside your home and watching when you leave?”

I’ll try not to, I’m eating my dinner. Oh no, Sonos now knows what time I eat my dinner.

Moderator edit: 18:36 GMT, noted

There is a hack to ensure Sonos doesn’t know when you are out, use the remote ‘feature’ of Spotify Connect to un-pause your Spotify stream that you paused on your Sonos when you left home. 

@Elovarun my old app as in 16.1 s2 version has no new terms to agree to guessing its to cover themselves over missing features but all is good in 16.1 land lol

They only ask you to agree to terms of use when they make a change.  The last change to the T.o.U was Nov. 2022.

There is a method to tell Sonos not to share your data. You have to email them.

privacy@sonos.com

I live in Virginia which has laws against unfettered use. I have asked to be notified when the change is made on my account. We will see if I get an answer.

I feel like this is the same as ransomware. You must agree or we will sell your data to anyone with enough money.

Read about the man who was served a warrant to search his house since Google reported him for kiddie porn. The ‘porn’ they reported was an image taken of his son, who had a bad rash, which he sent to his pediatrician. This totally disrupted his household and life. I’m totally against kiddie porn, but this is an overstep.

Why is everyone giving away cloud service and trying to force you into using it? It cost them money. If you don’t pay for it, almost certainly they are selling information based on that data.

A good friend of mine has geolocation set up on his and his partner’s phones. They can easily see where the other person is. One day, his placed him up on the side of a mountain in National Forest while he was not near that area. If a body had been found there, would he be a suspect? Would he be able to prove he was not there in spite of his phone saying he was?

Just some thoughts on privacy.

I take issue with the removal of the statement that Sonos will not sell user data.  This is not Google where the “payment” for the service is your information.  If this isn’t reverted, I plan on selling my Sonos components and switching to another system.

My guess is this person, as earnest as they seem to be, didn’t read this. Or, possibly, that information had not yet been posted when they made the video.

I’m not sure that admitting they had to change the wording to be compliant with various state laws because they’ve been giving data to advertisers for free (?) and will continue to do so is gonna make that guy change his tune. This is what he does. 
 

Sonos gives a way to opt out so people who aren’t good with it should just opt out or go back to CDs and LPs, mini disc etc. 

the opt out is for California residents only.  
As to going back to CD’s, that is just silly.  Some of use bought into Sonos years ago.  The “love it or leave it” mentality is wrong.  
 

I bought a multi-room speaker system.  Not a data-vacuuming machine to benefit advertisers.  

Anyone can opt out not just Cali. There’s no love it or leave it you have a choice. Its stupid you can’t opt out in app but the option is there  

Which is what you’re doing. Read the policy again. Reread the post I linked to again. Consult an attorney. Read Sonos’ publicly available accounts, since they’re a publicly held company. They are not ‘vacuuming’ , or selling your data. Don’t rely on others to shape your knowledge with their posts.

FYI, I sent my request to opt out a week ago asking for notification when it had been completed. I believe it mentions up to 30 days. I have not heard back yet. I don’t know how a person would know it was done unless they notified them?

Meanwhile, I’m not using Sonos. It is rotten to have this expensive equipment that has become spyware unfit to operate.

Do you own a cellphone?

They are not spying on you now any more than they were before. You do realise you are twisting it to suit your own misunderstanding? What precisely are you worried will happen as a result of any change in policy that isn't already happening every time you open any website on your search engine? Have you written to the hundreds of websites and all your subscription services to request they do not share any of your data? You’ve only dropped Sonos a line because it has been brought to your attention. It’s like sealing a crack in your front door frame when the front door itself is missing...

Aside from a mobile phone, is there any other official Sonos method for operation? Yes I have a mobile phone.

I think you are misunderstanding. There are many ways to prevent being spied on. I have them in place on my system critical computers and many in place on other computers here.

If you are so happy to share your data, how about sending us your email address, physical address, phone number and while we’re at it, you SS number? How about any links to web cams in your home? No, please do not. Europe has in place things to avoid this type of intrusion and several US states now have laws in place.

This is not a discussion about whether we are alright with everyone’s personal data, this is a discussion about the handling of my personal data. I do not wish for it to be sold.

Of interest, at least this website allows you to accept or deny cookies. Why can’t the app have accept or deny sharing my data?

If you have a mobile phone, you hold in your pocket a device which tracks your every movement, listens to every conversation, tracks every website you visit, every app usage, every purchase, every text, every search you make, every email, every smart home command . . . almost every aspect of your life, and does this most times without detailing what it does and doesn’t track in the Privacy Statement for the apps and/or OS it operates.  A privacy statement which, mind you, 99% of the users never even read.

On the other hand, Sonos states very clearly what it does and doesn’t do, and as stated above, there was no change in the policy as to what it is collecting and how it is shared/sold, only in the wording to comply with two states’ laws whose strict interpretation does not allow for the former blanket statement (Note: the language is still there outside of the US).  

So tell me, why are you so perturbed by Sonos’ “spyware” (which isn’t really spyware if they tell you what they are doing), and whose terms you’ve willingly agreed to several times in the past, but you don’t seem the least bit concerned about a phone and it’s apps where (quite literally) “You (meaning your data) are the product.”?

Sonos has my name, email address, details of my speakers, streaming services, listening choices.  It doesn’t have my DOB, address or phone number. So good luck to them telling 137 partners that I listened to Seal earlier today. Anyone with my data from Sonos, if it’s of interest to them, can cross reference this with my details on other sites who have sold my data to ascertain the rest of the info about me.

I don’t wish for my data to be sold but as @jgatie rightly said earlier, your data is already out there. No letter to Sonos will make a material difference. If you can tell me that you have not recently been on a website and had a contextual ad served to you that related to a search or personal interest then you must be the only person in the world to have secured your data so tightly. 

I have set up my phone so that most tracking never happens. I do not use location services. Yes, I know tower info can be tracked. The big providers just got busted for doing this without disclosure.

Yes, phones are the least secure tech device you can own. I do very little with and have limited apps on my phone because of this. Banking… never. Autopay…. absolutely never. Gmail, where your email is read to collect data to sell to advertisers. What do they do with your email account login information if it is sent to your gmail account? What do they do when your new bank login info is sent to your gmail account? I have a client who is really intelligent, who wired money to a wrong account because the salesman of the product had his gmail account hacked. The hacker sat back and waiting, clearly reading the conversation, waiting for a 10K sale to go through and then quickly edited things. Made personal comments which made is seem very real… and then sent it from that account as a revised invoice because the original was flawed. I can’t go into more. I was the one who reviewed the mail logs to know that the email did positively come trom gmail using that salesman’s account.

The bottom line is just because many companies do this, it does not mean it is alright. It is not alright with me. This was not the situation when I purchased Sonos equipment. This is hog ringing.

Ahh, the old “Just because other companies I use do it much worse, doesn’t mean I shouldn’t excoriate the one I’m pissed off at now because some website and/or poster brought it to my attention” defense.  Otherwise known as rampant hypocrisy. 

By the way, when did you purchase Sonos?  Because they have publicly stated that there are no changes to the data collected, that the changes to the wording were to accommodate the stricter interpretations of the laws in a couple states.  They are on public record for this, and would be held liable by the FTC if it were untrue (and a quick diff of the older and newer Privacy Policies shows it to be 100% true).  So why did you agree to this “hog ringing” before and are just coming to protest it now? 

I do not remember how many years ago it was. The first was the basic Sonos speaker. I think it was Sonos 1. Very little else existed at the time other than very expensive whole home systems.

I am very happy you are content with your data being sold. Perhaps Sonos will make enough money from this to make improvements to their App?

Me, I don’t wish to have my data sold. End of story. I simply wish to opt out. I am reporting my experience with that process. This isn’t to be an argument about anything else. Simply one App, with one option.

Doesn’t matter how long ago you started, you would have been required to agree to the Terms of Use everytime it is updated.  The only way you would have a case would be if you bought Sonos since the last time it changed this very month.

So now that we got that established, your answer would be a “Yes” that you agreed to it before and are just complaining about it now, even though nothing has changed.  Do you realize you’ve been manipulated by whatever YouTube video, website, or posting bought you here?