Privacy statement concern

  • 19 August 2017
  • 87 replies
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Am I the only one that finds the new privacy statement disturbing? I cannot recall ever being told when I bought my seven products over a period of time that Sonos had the right to threaten disabling my property if I didn't pass over personal information. Does anyone in the UK know if, by law, they can blackmail consumers in this way, post-purchase?

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If a customer chooses not to acknowledge the privacy statement, the customer will not be able to update the software on their Sonos system, and over time the functionality of the product will decrease,” a company spokesperson told ZDNet. “The customer can choose to acknowledge the policy, or can accept that over time their product may cease to function.

I am surprised more people aren’t outraged at this. Many people have purchased Sonos components for the capabilities on the box. We don’t care about voice control or really any of Sonos’ growth strategy.

When I purchased and set it up, I agreed to the policies. If I didn’t want to, I could put them back in the box and returned them. Their lies the issue, because now I need to accept a policy that is substantively different. Importance, or specifically if the revised terms are a “big deal” or much different is irrelevant, they are changing the rules and I no longer have the choice to put them back in the box and get my money back.

And by the way, if it wasn’t such a big deal, they wouldn’t make everyone sign it and require regular updates because “over time” the components “may cease to function”. I suspect (this is pure conjecture), that these terms are somehow mandated/related to their partnerships with firms like Amazon. I can't imagine this is a debate any company wants to have (look at Plex and their privacy policy backlash...)

I’ve contacted Sonos support, and I needed to go back and forth a few times because they were evasive and said things like "in my opinion you shouldn't...." and "it's essentially the same policy...". Which was not my concern. I finally did verify that the components regularly need an active connection to the internet, and the policies must to be accepted for the components to continue to function. For anyone going to buy some Sonos today, all of that is fine, if you don’t like these policies, don’t buy it. Those of us who have already purchased components have no such option.

Much of this has been said before. My reason for posting, was my surprise that people aren't more outraged. It takes much less in the internet troll age to get people all fired up.
I finally did verify that the components regularly need an active connection to the internet, and the policies must to be accepted for the components to continue to function.

I can't imagine the local library will ever stop functioning regardless of Internet connectivity. I take a portion of my Sonos gear and my local library with me on the road in my RV, which nine times out of ten doesn't have an Internet connection. The local library not playing over the Sonos kit with no Internet connection would be a huge problem for me, and I'd think for Sonos also.
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I finally did verify that the components regularly need an active connection to the internet, and the policies must to be accepted for the components to continue to function.

I can't imagine the local library will ever stop functioning regardless of Internet connectivity. I take a portion of my Sonos gear and my local library with me on the road in my RV, which nine times out of ten doesn't have an Internet connection. The local library not playing over the Sonos kit with no Internet connection would be a huge problem for me, and I'd think for Sonos also.


Exactly, same as installing a Playbar/Playbase and then disconnect it from the network, it will always continue playback from the TV without updating. It's changes in online services (e.g Spotify around 6.0 release) that can require an update to continue functioning.
People aren't outraged because they actually read the privacy policy terms, and realize that if they do not choose to activate the voice control features, then the new conditions do not apply. In other words, acknowledging the privacy policy and performing the update in no way forces you to comply with the new data collection. That only occurs if you voluntarily activate voice control. Also, the data shared via the voice control partnership is the same exact data Sonos has been collecting all along; nothing new is being collected. In other words, it is much ado about nothing.
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People aren't outraged because they actually read the privacy policy terms, and realize that if they do not choose to activate the voice control features, then the new conditions do not apply. In other words, acknowledging the privacy policy and performing the update in no way forces you to comply with the new data collection. That only occurs if you voluntarily activate voice control. Also, the data shared via the voice control partnership is the same exact data Sonos has been collecting all along; nothing new is being collected. In other words, it is much ado about nothing.

Maybe unexpectedly, but I don’t strongly disagree with anything you wrote, you are just missing my point.

The (potential) outrage is around existing customers required to agree with a substantively different (for lack of better wording) value of goods and interaction model. It is unheard of for a consumer goods company to demand a customer who has paid for the goods, do something new for that company or their goods will no longer function.

jgatie, you have 13869 replies; if you spent (at least) a minute per post, that’s almost one full day of your life on a Sonos support platform. Hopefully you are enjoying your speakers when typing away, with their policy, Sonos can probably figure out what room you are replying in and other details….. 🆒
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Maybe unexpectedly, but I don’t strongly disagree with anything you wrote, you are just missing my point.

The (potential) outrage is around existing customers required to agree with a substantively different (for lack of better wording) value of goods and interaction model. It is unheard of for a consumer goods company to demand a customer who has paid for the goods, do something new for that company or their goods will no longer function.

jgatie, you have 13869 replies; if you spent (at least) a minute per post, that’s almost one full day of your life on a Sonos support platform. Hopefully you are enjoying your speakers when typing away, with their policy, Sonos can probably figure out what room you are replying in and other details….. 🆒
Wow, how many times does it need to be stated that your Sonos will NOT stop functioning when you don't accept the slightly adjusted statement, you simply won't be able to update anymore which can result in services stop working in the future when things change that need an update...
When your argument breaks down, attack the number of posts a person has. How incredibly boring, especially when by your math, over the 9 years I've been posting, I've spent exactly .030% of my time here.

Of course, like your points, your math is wrong. 13869 min ÷ (60 min/hr * 24 hr/day) = 9 days and change. 🆒