Why Sonos? Patrick, what are you doing?!

The video is correct in that Sonos has removed the language that said they promise not to sell our personal data. 
 

I think there’s a joke in there about your system not working so they have no data to sell🤣

Something I’ve noticed with help from members of the community is that if you attempt to stop/block Sonos data collection and in app ads, the new features will not be enabled in the app as Sonos releases updates. It might be a bug or coincidence and not by design but not 100% sure. 

Like most people I never read the T&Ca but I just looked at the privacy statement (updated June 2024) and it reads:

How We May Share Personal Information

Sonos does not and will not sell personal information about our customers. We want you to understand that information about our customers is an important part of our business. We only disclose your data as described in this Statement. We may share information with the following types of third parties.

what am I missing here ?

Interesting, can you link where the above came from?

Last week the longstanding Sonos policy of “We protect the data of our listeners as if it were our own.” and “The primary purpose of collecting your data is to improve your listening experience” appeared to have completely changed and removed the policy to not sell their users’ data.  Quite a fundamental change so it would be interesting if it was an oversight and has been reinstated as per your post.

2023 Privacy Statement

2024 Privacy Statement

Possibly geographic location.  I understand this applies in the US but maybe not in the EU and UK.  Would that explain things for you?

Right, so the U.K. policy statement, which is what I was looking at, has the ‘we will not sell personal information’ statement. 

https://www.sonos.com/en-gb/legal/privacy

That's it! 👍🏻

UK policy still says that Sonos “deeply respect your privacy and right to control how and if your personal data is used.” and still have the not selling data part in bold.

Which may shed light on the explanation I got from a Sonos rep (summarizing) that the changes were specifically due to the California and Virginia exceptions, which can be construed as “selling” data and thus the blanket statement was confusing/inaccurate in those states.  So it would appear the policy hasn’t really changed, except to accommodate the extremely strict interpretations by the laws in CA and VA.

It seems to me that the questions about the license agreement reflect more on the loss of the trust users have in Sonos than any malicious intentions Sonos might have.

Funny how we always read the small print when things are bad 😏

I mean they changed the policy. They went from saying they won’t sell data to omitting this. 
 

Intent is secondary in the sense that if they can make money off it they will. Malicious or not is more your personal perspective. 
 

Personally I’m not happy about this but am waiting so see how this plays out. Hopefully Sonos will clarify. 

Once again, a thread with concerns about Sonos selling data when everybody every day contributes their data to thousands of global companies just by going online… 

Sonos is a tiny molecule in a huge ocean of data. Should we really lose any sleep over whether they can profit from the fact that we like Foo Fighters? 

Then there are those who claimed to have left Sonos due to privacy concerns in the past but just seem to keep on cropping up in one persona or another . . . 

From what I have seen and understand from the data Sonos collects, they don’t collect to that level. They may know what Music Service you used (eg Apple Music/Spotify/Local Library) on a specific day and for how long, not what tracks you listened to, or when you listened to them.

Apple/Spotify/Amazon/Google/etc, will know you like Foo Fighters.

The Verge:

https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/14/24178433/sonos-privacy-policy-customer-data-controversy

Oh the irony! An article on The Verge, talking about customer anger around Sonos’ privacy policy, covered up by a window asking for consent to use your data. You either consent to them selling you out to almost 200 partners, or you need to spend the next 30 mins unchecking all the partner consents. 

This is precisely what I mean when I say the Sonos privacy/data ‘furore’ is a complete overblown nonsense compared to how much data one gives away every moment one spends online...

I didn’t get that pop up (maybe due to location or the dns I use). With these popups IME you can decline and read the content or not. Or was this not the case with this one?

I guess the point is you can decline those cookies and still access the site, unlike the new Sonos policy?

Nope. Accept or Manage Options. If you click Manage Options, the choice is Accept All or Confirm Choices. If you only want to Confirm Choices, you first need to scroll down all the various toggles (turning on or off), and then you have to go into Vendor Choices and individually toggle off all their hundreds of partners…

Perhaps you have previously pressed Accept, as if you do that, usually you don’t ever get the window again. 

No you really can’t. There is no choice but to do as I described above… (We’re not talking about Sonos, we’re talking The Verge.)

Some people are so absolutely delighted that Sonos maybe, sort of, could be, kind of selling data, they’re positively giddy.  Meh.  Me, I gave up my cape and tights once I hit puberty.  

No clue if this is aimed at me (I've already said I have no particular issue with it) but maybe Sonos could publicly clarify the reason for the change and make the information you appear to have had more widely known.

Money?

Maybe. But I don’t get it in a private window either  (Firefox version of incognito) and nextdns off, so maybe it’s location. Oh well the privacy focused people can choose to accept or not I guess. 

Hey everyone.

Keith posted an official statement from Sonos that addresses the talks on Terms of Service we have seen the last two weeks on the community:

• Important Update: Our Commitment to Your Privacy

I hope this helps shed some light on it all.

Mike R. H. wrote:

Hey everyone.

Keith posted an official statement from Sonos that addresses the talks on Terms of Service we have seen the last two weeks on the community:

• Important Update: Our Commitment to Your Privacy

I hope this helps shed some light on it all.

I found the response bad, why an opt out by only by sending emails. Why no opt in? 
 

It has nothing to do with transparency, it is all marketing. The decisions Sonos makes at the moment are unbelievable.

1) The app is overwhelmingly failing. The amount of complains is huge, bugs, slow etc.
2) The new privacy agreement is a step back for the privacy of customers. 

3) The safety, it is unbelievable that Sonos systems of all customers are world wide accessible by a web browser, whiteout prober security (no 2fa). And there is no opt out and this is a huge risk. 

4) Sonos removed complete local acces and runs everything true there cloud. 

I have for a long time advised Sonos to many of my friends. The comfort and easy of use music system was great. I always found Sonos a premium brand. At the moment however I lost al trust in Sonos and instead of making things better it is getting worse and worse. 

I am truly looking around for alternative speakers and even a classic setup with receiver and speakers because I am done with company’s that play and fool around with customers.  
 

Sonos you broke something that did not need to be fixed. A beautiful product, app and brand is completely destroyed in the matter of weeks.