It’s been an eventful few months for Sonos. CEO Patrick Spence Auto-reply feature Customers have emailed the company complaining about a redesigned app, but as the company tries to regroup, rebuild trust, and get its new Sonos Ace headphones off to a strong start, it’s once again embroiled in controversy.
As repair technicians and consumer privacy advocates have highlighted, Lewis RothmanSonos has made a significant change to its privacy policy, at least in the U.S., removing a key sentence. The updated policy no longer includes the previous statement that “Sonos does not and will not sell customers’ personal information.” While that pledge still remains in other countries, it is nowhere to be found in the updated U.S. policy, which went into effect earlier this month.
Now, some customers are already frustrated with the shaky performance of the new Sonos app. It’s ringing out They see it as another poor decision by the company’s management, the latest in a series of self-destructive mistakes from a brand they once had no hesitation in endorsing.
Here is the relevant portion of the “How We Share Your Personal Information” section of the Privacy Policy: Just like in 2023:
Sonos does not and will not sell your personal information. However, certain data transactions described in this Privacy Policy may constitute a “sale” or “sharing” of data under California law and/or the laws of other states in the United States. Please see the CA Supplement below for more information applicable to California residents. We understand that information about you is an important part of our business. We will only disclose your data as described in this Policy.
Certain data practices described throughout this Privacy Policy may constitute a “sale” or “sharing” of data under California law and/or the laws of other states in the United States. Please see the California Supplement below for more information applicable to California residents. Please understand that information about our customers is an important part of our business. We will only disclose your data as described in this Policy.
The Verge We reached out to Sonos for more information about what the change means and whether the company will be treating customer data differently than before. As part of its revamped app platform, Sonos said: Deploy web-based access The change will be applied to all customer systems, further expanding the role of the cloud in the company’s architecture. Unfortunately, the web app currently lacks any two-factor authentication, which has also frustrated users: only an email address and password are needed to remotely control a Sonos device.
The app situation is slowly improving, with alarms and sleep timers both being restored recently, but after a thorough software overhaul, contacting Sonos customer support can still take a very long time.