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Sonos: users must accept new privacy policy or devices may “cease to function”

zdnet.com

31–40 of 253 posts

Re: Sonos: users must accept new privacy policy or devices may “cease to function”

#31
post #9

Sale of goods act (and similar consumer protection laws in so many countries around the world)?

That was my first thought as well. It's clearly not reasonable to assume a customer bought a product without any knowledge of arbitrary future changes in the legal terms but understood that the product could cease to provide the same functionality they bought it for later if they didn't accept those unrelated changes. This ought to be grounds for returning these devices to vendors as unfit for purpose and demanding t…

Isn't Sonos just saying, if you don't accept the new privacy policy you won't get updates? I highly doubt they're going to deliberately (somehow) break devices for users that refuse to update.

Re: Sonos: users must accept new privacy policy or devices may “cease to function”

#32
post #20
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sonos offers synchronization between speakers, better range, music still plays when your phone is off, easier for multiple devices to control the music, plays more music sources (e.g. from a NAS). (Disclaimer: I used to work for Sonos.)

Until they decide to turn any of these features off, right?

Sonos has at times deprecated features, yes (for example, you can no longer play music from a Rhapsody UPnP server running on your Windows computer - they replaced it with direct playback from Rhapsody's servers). Other times music services have gone under entirely and Sonos has removed them.

Re: Sonos: users must accept new privacy policy or devices may “cease to function”

#33

Is there a use case for Sonos that good Bluetooth speakers don't address more simply?

I have both. I have no home music or home theatre use case for which Bluetooth is simpler or otherwise better in any other fashion.

In particular, non-technical users appear to be vastly more comfortable with the Sonos system.

Re: Sonos: users must accept new privacy policy or devices may “cease to function”

#35
post #22
post #3

The actual solution is simple: stop using these devices.

It's not that simple if you've already bought the devices and the terms change.

Buy devices that do not come with "backdoors" like this then. Why would these not be autonomous?

Re: Sonos: users must accept new privacy policy or devices may “cease to function”

#37
What is provided to the consumer/user in exchange for agreeing to this contract? I assume, because I am becoming increasingly nihilistic about technology, that challenges to this would fail in court. However, this seems to fail both the consideration and the competency and capacity elements of a functional contract.

Re: Sonos: users must accept new privacy policy or devices may “cease to function”

#38
post #7

I bought one of those for my gf because I wanted to see if it was any good. Quick review. iOS users have to use their spotify app which is lousy. Google Play users can cast to it, thankfully. Major positive point is that it uses wifi and supports casting from Google Play. But for my gf who uses iphone she hates it. Overall we prefer the Marshall bluetooth speakers over Sonos because in an apartment there's rarely a n…

There is a Sonos app for iOS, though? But agree using the Spotify app to manage it is pretty lousy but then I just switch to the Sonos app.

Re: Sonos: users must accept new privacy policy or devices may “cease to function”

#39
post #28

I might understand this if it was for new customers going forward. But I don't understand how they can tell their existing customers this and not expect a lawsuit.

I am considering a complaint to the ACCC here in Australia. It's possible this sort of thing violates our consumer protection laws.

Re: Sonos: users must accept new privacy policy or devices may “cease to function”

#40
post #16

Is there a use case for Sonos that good Bluetooth speakers don't address more simply?

* Shared playlist/queue between all users of a household. * No need to have a second device present to stream music. That is, I can start up music with the controller on my phone, and go to the store, but the music still plays since all the streaming is handled by the sonos speaker. * No need to pair your phone/computer to the device every time you come home. Just get on the wifi, and you're set. Those are the big on…

Just an FYI you can play on Sonos directly from Spotify now - that was a huge game changer for me.
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