Bose Class Action Says Mobile App Secretly Collects User Info

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

Bose, the headphone maker, faces a class action lawsuit alleging the company uses it app to collect and share information about users without permission.

Lead plaintiff Kyle Zak says the Bose Connect mobile app secretly collects information about users, including what they listen to, and shares it with third parties without consent.

The plaintiff claims that Bose is in violation of the federal Wiretap Act, the Illinois Eavesdropping Statute and the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practice Act.

Zak says he purchased a pair of Bose wireless headphones for $350. In order to use the headphones in their full capacity, Zak claims he was required to download the Bose Connect mobile app to his smartphone. However, the Bose Connect app collects and records the titles of the music and audio files users play and transmits that data to third parties without users’ knowledge or consent, the class action states.

“One’s personal audio selections – including music, radio broadcast, Podcast, and lecture choices – provide an incredible amount of insight into his or her personality, behavior, political views, and personal identity,” the Bose lawsuit claims. Zak points out that religion, medical diagnoses, and sexual orientation could all be derived from what users listen to on their devices.

According to the class action, Bose introduced a feature allowing users to remotely control their headphones and speakers from their smartphone, including the QuietComfort 35, SoundSport Wireless, Sound Sport Pulse Wireless, QuietControl 30, SoundLink Around-Ear Wireless Headphones II, and SoundLink Color II in 2016. Users must submit the serial number of their product, full name, email address and phone number to register for the app, the lawsuit claims.

“[Bose] programmed its Bose Connect app to continuously record the contents of the electronic communications that users send to their Bose Wireless Products from their smartphones, including the names of the music and audio tracks they select to play along with the corresponding artist and album information, together with the Bose Wireless Product’s serial numbers,” Zak states.

Further, alleges the plaintiff, Bose used a data miner called Sement.io to automatically disclose and transmit users’ information to third parties. Segment.io is a company that can be used to “Collect all of your customer data and send it anywhere,” the lawsuit claims.

“[Bose] concealed its actual data collection policies from its customers knowing that (i) a speaker or headphone product that monitors, collects, and transmits users’ private music and audio tracks to any third party—let alone a data miner—is worth significantly less than a speaker or headphone product that does not, and (ii) few, if any, of its customers would have purchased a Bose Wireless Product in the first place had they known that it would monitor, collect, and transmit their Media Information,” argues the plaintiff in the class action.

Zak seeks to represent a nationwide Class of Bose headphone purchasers who also installed the Bose Connect mobile act along with an Illinois subclass.

The plaintiff is seeking an injunction to stop Bose from allegedly collecting and transmitting user data without consent and requiring the company destroy all data it has collected, in addition to damages, including the return of the products’ purchase price and disgorgement of profits.

Zak is represented by Benjamin S. Thomassen and Jay Edelson of Edelson PC.

The Bose Headphones Privacy Class Action Lawsuit is Kyle Zak v. Bose Corp., Case No. 1:17-cv-02928, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

UPDATE: On March 31, 2019, an Illinois federal judge preserved some claims in a class action lawsuit alleging that Bose collects and shares listening histories from Bluetooth headphone users, while trashing other allegations.

UPDATE 2: On May 31, 2019, Bose asked an Illinois court to dismiss a wiretap class action against them that claims the company collects consumer listening data.