How to Prevent Your Sonos From Collecting (As Much) Personal Data
Bad news, Sonos customers: To lay the groundwork for upcoming voice assistant support, the company is asking users to agree to an updated privacy policy that includes both mandatory data collection rules and a mention of future device features. According to Consumerist, if you disagree with the specified policy update, basic functionality of your device may stop working.
While you cannot prevent it from collecting even some of the data as long as you agree to the terms, there is an easy way to prevent Sonos from receiving more of your personal information while staying up to date and fully functional.
In a blog post, Sonos stated that the update was necessary to “improve the listening experience” and identify problems by analyzing the collected error information. Its earlier privacy policy (you can check it here ) allowed users to choose if they wanted to register their device with Sonos for data collection. The new document says that opting out of “collecting functional data” is not an option.
Data collection is mandatory
Previously collected data included information about equalizer use, playback errors, and time spent listening to local or streaming music. However, its new privacy policy collects what the company calls “functional data”, information Sonos says is “absolutely essential for your Sonos system to safely perform its core functions.” Functional data includes personally identifiable information such as location data, IP addresses, and more:
Registration data:
This information includes your email address, location, language preferences, product serial number, IP address, and Sonos account login information (as described above).
System data:
This data includes things like product type, controller device type, controller operating system, software version information, content source (audio line-in), signal input (for example, whether your TV is outputting a specific audio signal such as Dolby on your Sonos system.), information about Wi-Fi antennas, audio settings (such as equalizer or stereo pairing), product orientation, room names you assigned to your Sonos product, whether your product has been configured using Sonos Trueplay technology, and See also error information.
Sonos also attempts to collect the performance and activity information shown below, also known as Supplemental Usage Data:
Performance Information:
This includes things like your product temperature, Wi-Fi information such as signal strength, music services you’ve connected to your Sonos system (including, for some services, your login username but not the password for that service. ), information about how often you use the Sonos app versus another control mechanism, the flow of interactions in the Sonos app, how often you use physical controls on the device and location data when using the Sonos app, and how long you have used your Sonos product.
Activity information:
This includes the length of time the music service has been used, information about the product or room groups; command information such as play, pause, change volume, or skip tracks; information about the track, playlist or data of the station container; and information about a Sonos playlist or Sonos favorites; each is associated with individual Sonos products.
Your Sonos can hear you
While no Sonos product can now eavesdrop on your voice, evidence of the company’s not-so-secret plans to integrate voice assistants into its products is outlined in a privacy policy update. This gives future Sonos products the ability to continually listen for the voice command wake-up words, although, according to a Sonos spokesperson, the voice data isn’t sent anywhere until you say the correct wake-up word.
How to (partially) protect yourself
For now, if you haven’t enabled voice assistant support, you can opt out of sharing the aforementioned additional usage data with Sonos by changing some settings in your apps.
Sonos for iOS or Android:
- From the Sonos Music Menu, tap Settings.
- Tap Advanced Settings.
- Click Usage Data, then Turn off Usage Data Sharing.
Sonos for Mac:
- From the menu bar at the top of your screen, click Sonos, then Settings.
- On the left side of the window, click Advanced.
- Click Enhance Sonos.
- Select the Disable Usage Data Sharing check box.
Sonos for PC:
- From the menu bar at the top of the Sonos app, click Manage, then Settings.
- On the left side of the window, click Advanced.
- Click Enhance Sonos.
- Select the Disable Usage Data Sharing check box.
If you are concerned about data that may have already been collected by Sonos, you can edit or delete it by logging into your Sonos account online or through the Sonos app, although deleting personal data can render your Sonos device useless. You can also send Sonos an email and ask them to delete your personal information if you like.
Sonos says it has no plans to sell the data and has never sold it before. However, the issue of mandatory data collection and updating of privacy policies is acute. If you, as a Sonos owner, agree to one contract and are asked to sign another, more aggressive one, to keep your speakers working, you probably would be a little worried.
Privacy experts are also not happy and believe that increasingly aggressive contracts are unfair to consumers.
Sonos Holds Software Updates Hostage If You Don’t Sign New Privacy Agreement | Consumer
Bugfix: An earlier version of this article stated that Sonos sells voice-enabled products. The statement has been edited for clarity.