Location mandatory

@dabo
I share your preference to avoid sharing my details with everyone. Some of the sharing is an attempt to provide an “easy” user interface. For example, there is little point forcing you to navigate through music services that are blocked in your country. And, there may be some convenience if preferences can be shared between phone/pad/computer. I keep my browsers and email client on short chains. There are lots of demands that I accept browser tracking cookies, else the site will not allow further views. In almost all cases I’m only curious and will simply leave — I don’t need their cookies or data.

On my iPad there is a popup option where I can “share once” while I’m setting up new Apps.

Thanks controlav I didn’t know you could disable  it after setup - thanks.

But what does “Apple require it in order to enable Bluetooth and Wifi discovery” actually mean? How does that work?  And why is Sonos asking for it not my iPhone?

Thanks for the responses!

Thank you jgatie and Stanley_4 for directly answering the query seriously and making good points.

Thanks Rob_95 for the funniest and probably truest answer.👍

Yes I do realise that we live in surveillance capitalism society but it doesn’t mean I have to like it or accept it and I do what I can to avoid the worst of it.

But whereas there is a built in inevitability about location tracking for services like mobile phones and wi-fi, what is that for a set of speakers? What legitimate reason do Sonos have for needing to know your location?

Default local radio stations is a lame reason (it’s the worldwide web) and should never be mandatory.

So we’re left with geo-location eligibility for services - as jgatiie points out. But what ‘services’?

The only ‘service’ I want from speakers is to play the content fed to them. The services that provide that content are not Sonos. They are separate companies with whom I have separate contracts. So what Sonos services are we talking about here and why would anything Sonos does be geo-location dependent?

I have a Naim hi fi system with lovely Sonus Faber speakers.. That system plays content I feed to it in various ways. Vinyl, CD, I can even stream to it from any of my devices. Does that system want or need my location? Of course not.

Naim make high quality hi fi and Sonus Faber make high quality speakers. That’s it. What are Sonos doing exactly?

Resistance is futile. 

The location determines two things, your local radio stations and your eligibility for services according to geo-location.  One is for convenience, the other is mandatory.  Also, whether you like it or not, your WiFi broadcasts your location to anyone who wishes to see it.  Sonos at least asks for permission to use it, a great many apps do not.

Bottom line is, if you do not wish to broadcast your location, stay off any network, anywhere, ever.