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Bose Headphones Spy on Users, Lawsuit Says

fortune.com

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Re: Bose Headphones Spy on Users, Lawsuit Says

#91

Post by Danihan »

rhizome wrote: post #39
vr46 wrote: post #23

Hmm, not pleased, we have two sets of the 35 earphones and I use the app - well, I have to, else I can't change some settings on the earphones. This is totally overstepping the boundaries of what earphones/headphones should be doing. Any company that collects my data and moves it from under my purview to theirs should have to display or expose this data in the exact form that it's collected to the user, so we can see…

Bose (et al) thinks you're overstepping your bounds by having a problem with their monetization strategy.

I can't wait until my Bose® active suspension system tracks everywhere I drive and sells the data to local companies!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8sVDenpPOE

Re: Bose Headphones Spy on Users, Lawsuit Says

#93

Post by kbenson »

ecomhacker wrote: post #45
vr46 wrote: post #23

Hmm, not pleased, we have two sets of the 35 earphones and I use the app - well, I have to, else I can't change some settings on the earphones. This is totally overstepping the boundaries of what earphones/headphones should be doing. Any company that collects my data and moves it from under my purview to theirs should have to display or expose this data in the exact form that it's collected to the user, so we can see…

This reminds me of a bluetooth toothbrush I just bought that requires my location to be enabled to change the settings via the oral b app which is required since this model has less buttons than others. The reason why I bought a bluetooth toothbrush was for a wireless hardware clock, brushing timer, and ranking system which also really doesn't work correctly even with the app.

> change the settings via the oral b app which is required since this model has less buttons than others.

I find it disturbing that we're moving to an era where even simple devices require the equivalent of a sonic screwdriver to make work.

I really, really wish we had a generic discovery, configuration and reporting protocol (like HTML forms but much more rigid and no styling) for configuring bluetooth devices that was open, and popular enough that companies would feel pressured to use it.

Then again, I really wish we had the exact same thing for IoT devices on the local network.

I swear, if it was good enough, and you marketed it to the Chinese knock-off manufacturers (who I assume would love to take some open source embedded code and not write their own), it might actually get enough momentum to force the brand names to support it as well.

Re: Bose Headphones Spy on Users, Lawsuit Says

#94

Post by wyager »

philfrasty wrote: post #82
wyager wrote: post #78

Avoid Bose headphones because they're overpriced and riding off brand recognition. Avoid """"smart"""" devices made by hardware manufacturers because hardware manufacturers don't know how to write software. While I sympathize for the people who are affected by this, everyone should really avoid buying such manifestly bad products in the first place. We should really be doing our best to avoid "smart" TVs, "smart" hea…

If you have a better suggestion for bluetooth + active noise cancelling please...be my guest...

If you don't mind IEMs, they offer superior sound blocking to over-ear headphones with active noise cancelling, especially with foam earpieces.

If that works for you, get any decent pair of Shure IEMs (or anything that uses the MMCX connector). Then you can purchase a Bluetooth receiver that connects to any brand of MMCX IEMs. This is nice because now the most expensive part (the IEM) you can keep using for as long as you want while periodically upgrading the wireless component as new technologies emerge.

Re: Bose Headphones Spy on Users, Lawsuit Says

#95

Post by kbenson »

mikestew wrote: post #85
ecomhacker wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of a bluetooth toothbrush I just bought that requires my location to be enabled to change the settings via the oral b app which is required since this model has less buttons than others. The reason why I bought a bluetooth toothbrush was for a wireless hardware clock, brushing timer, and ranking system which also really doesn't work correctly even with the app.

The reason why I bought a bluetooth toothbrush... Phone apps...for a goddamn toothbrush. Were someone to ask me, "Mike, you do a lot of Bluetooth work, what if we BT-enabled our electric toothbrush...what kind of value could we add with that?" Because I'm horrible at coming up with creative ideas for new technologies, I'd come up with something lame like, say, maybe a "ranking system". I could add a "brushing timer",…

I actually don't mind a phone app for a toothbrush, but I surely do mind a proprietary phone app for just a toothbrush. Give me a generic app that allows me to discover local bluetooth and IoT devices and prevents configuration for them through an open and highly standardized configuration protocol, and we'll have shifted back a bit more to utopia from distopia, IMO.

Re: Bose Headphones Spy on Users, Lawsuit Says

#96

Post by Danihan »

troncheadle wrote: post #63
ecomhacker wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of a bluetooth toothbrush I just bought that requires my location to be enabled to change the settings via the oral b app which is required since this model has less buttons than others. The reason why I bought a bluetooth toothbrush was for a wireless hardware clock, brushing timer, and ranking system which also really doesn't work correctly even with the app.

> The reason why I bought a bluetooth toothbrush was for a ranking system We are truly living in a modern fall of rome. We will choke on our bluetooth enabled toothbrushes, 700 dollar juicer machines, our fucking fitbits. We've ravaged the earth to adorn ourselves with decadent shackles and we will reap the consequences with fake tans and ultra clean teeth. In the past year I've gone from being an environmentalist to…

Yep, all that money should have gone into raising intelligent children, the way natural selection intended it.

Re: Bose Headphones Spy on Users, Lawsuit Says

#99

Post by orthecreedence »

mrec wrote: post #73
throwasehasdwi wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Enable the tab mute button that's existed in chrome for years but is still hidden: Go to URL chrome://flags in a new tab Search for the ‘Enable tab audio muting UI control’ flag Hit the ‘Enable’ link Relaunch Chrome when prompted (on Chrome OS a full restart is required) Now you can click the little speaker that appears next to the tab's close button when a tab is playing sound to stop that tab from playing audio. Go…

It's enabled by default in Firefox.

Wow, this is awesome. Thanks for mentioning this. I've been using Firefox for months now (switched from chrome) and never knew about this feature in either browser.

Re: Bose Headphones Spy on Users, Lawsuit Says

#100

Post by bo1024 »

ungzd wrote: post #32

Reading about spying headphones on website where video with sound starts automatically and continues to play when pressing pause (but jumps to right corner, just like hoaxes for Windows 95 where "start" button evaded mouse) — we're living in adtechpunk world.

Here's what I saw: http://imgur.com/a/B83o4
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