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Headphones are collecting too much personal data (2019)

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Re: Headphones are collecting too much personal data (2019)

#191

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel »

neiman wrote: post #173

If I had the resources, I would establish an organization for privacy badges for products. From "absolutely anonymous", through "necessary violations of privacy for function" till "unnecessary harvesting of data". Till such an organization for handing out badges will exist, it will be a hard task to buy any hardware and being able to trust its privacy.

With GDPR in place, "unnecessary harvesting of data" should in theory be a thing in the past (unless the user explicitly makes a voluntary choice to opt-in after being informed of the options).

Reality is different, but NGOs can in theory sue to make reality align better with the intent of GDPR. NOYB (https://noyb.eu) is supposed to be such an NGO, and they seem to be doing a decent job so far, although they're limited in what they can do with their resources, facing a never-ending wall of vendors that blatantly violate GDPR.

Re: Headphones are collecting too much personal data (2019)

#192

Post by IncRnd »

acd wrote: post #115

I tend to use passive headphones with 3.5mm jack, they have no electronics in them except the small speakers. They do not collect data. They are also used by musicians when doing audio mixing so its should sounds neutral and good. That the headphones does not have electronics and batteries means they will last longer and thus be be better for the environment.

Me, too! I use the $1 ones from Dollar Tree. They are easy to replace, come with microphones if desired, and work just as well on calls as expensive solutions. They don't always last as long, but purchasing 10 at a time fixes that.

These little earbuds are commodity items.

Re: Headphones are collecting too much personal data (2019)

#193

Post by monksy »

riquito wrote: post #190
niklasd wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently tried out wireless noise-cancelling headphones from both Bose and Sony, and (the important privacy issues aside) the user experience with these apps is just horrible. You unpack your Bose headphone, eager to use them. But before that, you have to download an app on the iPhone, then download a software update program on your laptop, which in turn opens a program in the browser that downloads an update, then…

I don't know about Bose, but you can connect the Sony headphones with the normal bluetooth pairing, there's no app required

Good luck when internal settings get changed (as in internal volume)

Re: Headphones are collecting too much personal data (2019)

#194

Post by slim »

myth2018 wrote: post #154

Drugstores in Brazil are doing it and that concerns me A LOT. Their modus operandi is to ask you your CPF (it's like an SSN, but not that secret and powerful) and, if you refuse to tell them, you are not eligible for some discounts which can reach 40% in some more expensive items. Customers happily agree to give their CPFs, completely unaware they are of the potentially disastrous consequences, and we are not even of…

I think the partido pirata can help with this issue. contact them :

http://partidopirata.org

Re: Headphones are collecting too much personal data (2019)

#195

Post by 0_____0 »

monksy wrote: post #193
riquito wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about Bose, but you can connect the Sony headphones with the normal bluetooth pairing, there's no app required

Good luck when internal settings get changed (as in internal volume)

long time user of the sony wh-1000xm2. never have had any such issue. i have noticed that it seems like the headset and phone have independent volume controls but both phone and headset have physical controls, no app required.

Re: Headphones are collecting too much personal data (2019)

#196

Post by hinkley »

niklasd wrote: post #182
monksy wrote: post #167

The article should have buried sony for how egregious they are. They require the app to collect location information, and ear. https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/articles/00233341 I'm not sure what else they collect.. but those are the 2 bad ones. They've got a few settings that are software controlled (one being the bluetooth's internal volume) What happens if you get a software update and you open the app on…

I recently tried out wireless noise-cancelling headphones from both Bose and Sony, and (the important privacy issues aside) the user experience with these apps is just horrible. You unpack your Bose headphone, eager to use them. But before that, you have to download an app on the iPhone, then download a software update program on your laptop, which in turn opens a program in the browser that downloads an update, then…

So far Shure hasn’t done anything that dumb, but you have (or rather, had. They seem to have to be coming out with over the ear model) to be ok with tethered headphones.

I kind of like the tether. Harder to lose them under a bookcase. And less of a problem if they plop out during exercise.

Re: Headphones are collecting too much personal data (2019)

#197

Post by unholythree »

gambiting wrote: post #142
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they will last longer and thus be be better for the environment This isn’t necessarily true. My wireless headphones have been with me for years. My wired earbuds are cheap enough that I can lose or damage them without care. The former are far better for the environment.

The problem is that your wired headphones might break if you're not careful, but if you don't then they will work essentially forever. Your wireless headphones on the other hand will break at some point because the tiny lithium battery inside them will eventually stop holding charge. It's not a question of if but when.

As an addition to you post: my wired headphones do break, but I can solder things at maybe a .1 mm scale. With wireless headphones repairability is beyond my ability in many cases.

Re: Headphones are collecting too much personal data (2019)

#198

Post by IshKebab »

_trampeltier wrote: post #181
catchmeifyoucan wrote: post #155

I use Bluetooth headphones, but almost never use or bother to set up the associated app. So hopefully Bluetooth pairing alone isn’t enough. Looks a lot of these details are collected through a companion app.

Yes me too. I really never install such apps, because they are always bad in many ways. I just wanna a bluethoot speaker or headphone. I really don't care for the mostly useless fancy software things. And most of the times, it's even possible to use these things also with a 3.5mm jack

Sometimes these apps are necessary though. For instance you can only turn the Google Assistant button off on Sony headphones in their app, there's an additional (better!) noise reduction mode only available through the app, firmware updates are through the app, etc. (I get the firmware updates because I'm vaguely hoping that one day they will fix the hilariously annoying flaw that they turning them on always activates noise cancellation.)

Re: Headphones are collecting too much personal data (2019)

#199

Post by p1esk »

josteink wrote: post #189
mandelbrotwurst wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Geez, that's brutal. I'm glad I'm seeing this....it never crossed my mind that this sort of thing would be something that might get built into headphones. If I want to avoid this sort of thing, I'm thinking / hoping it's sufficient to simply avoid headphones that require an app. Does that seem right?

> If I want to avoid this sort of thing, I'm thinking / hoping it's sufficient to simply avoid headphones that require an app. Or just get one with a good old 3.5mm jack. Beyer Dynamic, AKG and Shure have several options much cheaper than these Bose or Sony headsets which still give you at least 10x the audio-performance. For headsets, if you care about usability, portability, longevity and performance, wired is stil…

Good luck with this if you want state of the art in noise canceling

Re: Headphones are collecting too much personal data (2019)

#200

Post by neiman »

tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #191
neiman wrote: post #173

If I had the resources, I would establish an organization for privacy badges for products. From "absolutely anonymous", through "necessary violations of privacy for function" till "unnecessary harvesting of data". Till such an organization for handing out badges will exist, it will be a hard task to buy any hardware and being able to trust its privacy.

With GDPR in place, "unnecessary harvesting of data" should in theory be a thing in the past (unless the user explicitly makes a voluntary choice to opt-in after being informed of the options). Reality is different, but NGOs can in theory sue to make reality align better with the intent of GDPR. NOYB ( https://noyb.eu ) is supposed to be such an NGO, and they seem to be doing a decent job so far, although they're lim…

Afaik GDPR allows harvesting of data as long as I agree to that in the user agreement. The problem is of course that more than once I found out the user agreements after purchasing the product, when it was too late.

(I live in the EU, so GDPR is relevant to me)

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