Sonos is drawing more customer ire, this time over its privacy policy

It’s been a tough couple of months for Sonos, as well as CEO Patrick Spence It now has a canned auto-reply For customers who email him to vent about the redesigned app. But as the company works to right the ship, restore trust, and get its new Sonos Ace speakers off to a strong start, it finds itself in the middle of another controversy.

He is also a prominent repair technician and consumer privacy advocate Louis RossmanSonos has made a major change to its privacy policy, at least in the US, removing one key line. The updated policy no longer contains a sentence that previously stated, “Sonos does not and will not sell personal information about our customers.” That pledge still exists in other countries, but it cannot be found in the updated US policy, which took effect earlier this month.

Now, some customers are already feeling overwhelmed by the unstable performance of the new Sonos app, They look About what they consider to be another bad decision from the company’s leadership. For them, it was one easy mistake after another from a brand they once recommended without hesitation.

Here is the relevant portion of the “How we may share personal information” section of the Privacy Policy As it was in 2023:

Sonos does not and will not sell personal information about our customers. However, some of the data practices described in this Privacy Statement may constitute a “sale” or “sharing” of data under California and/or other U.S. state laws. See the CA Addendum below for more information that applies to California residents. We want you to understand that information about our customers is an important part of our business. We only disclose your data as described in this statement.

Some of the data practices described in this Privacy Statement may constitute a “sale” or “sharing” of data under California and/or other U.S. state laws. See the CA Addendum below for more information that applies to California residents. We want you to understand that information about our customers is an important part of our business. We only disclose your data as described in this statement.

the edge I’ve reached out to Sonos to clarify what this change means and whether the company now handles customer data differently than before. As part of Sonos’ reworked app platform Offer web access for all customer systems – giving the cloud a greater role in the enterprise architecture. Unfortunately, the web app currently lacks any kind of two-factor authentication, which has also angered users; All it takes is an email address and password to remotely control Sonos devices.

The app situation is gradually improving — both alarms and sleep timers were recently restored — but reaching Sonos customer support can take a very long time in the wake of a top-to-bottom software overhaul.