Privacy invading hardware is "ok" since they're private companies and have a "click yes" policy - was Falkvinge on Infopolicy

[Zenaan Harkness]

The war marches on.

Good luck folks,
Zenaan



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From: Falkvinge on Liberty <noreply+feedproxy at google.com>
Reply-To: Falkvinge on Liberty <rick at piratpartiet.se>
Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2017 11:21:00 +0000
Subject: Falkvinge on Infopolicy

Falkvinge on Liberty

///////////////////////////////////////////
Hardware maker: Give up your privacy and let us record what you say in your home, or well destroy your property

Posted: 30 Aug 2017 11:00 AM PDT
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Falkvinge-on-Infopolicy/~3/K5X-Q7MMSiU/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email

Privacy:Hardware maker Sonos has a new privacy policy, and is telling users that unless they agree to it, their devices
may cease to function entirely. Of course, since people bought these objects, theyre those peoples property. And since
Sonos is taking an action that they know will break these devices, Sonos is effectively saying theyll willfully destroy
your property unless you comply and give up your privacy. This is a new low.

Sonos is a high-end sound system maker, famous for being the first brand to have synchronized music in different rooms
with an off-the-shelf device system. This week, they announced a new privacy policy, where they say theyll be collecting
a lot of data about you, including listening in to your room and (in a roundabout way) recording it. People were
justifiably quite upset. It is in response to this community reaction that Sonos does the unforgivable: Sonos states
that if people dont accept the new privacy policy  meaning give up their privacy in their own home completely  Sonos is
going to willfully destroy those peoples property.

The customer can choose to acknowledge the policy, or can accept that over time their product may cease to function, the
Sonos spokesperson said, specifically.

Sonos is particularly sneaky about the part where they record sound. They say in their blog post that they dont keep the
recordings of sound recorded in your home, with the new Voice Assistant. However, they point out that they share their
collected data with a large number of parties, the services of which you have requested or authorized  where people tend
to read requested, but where authorized is the large part. Further, they point out that they share recorded sound with
Amazon under all circumstances, and Amazon is already known to keep recordings for later use by authorities or others,
so the point is kind of moot. We dont keep the recordings, we let others do it for us would be a more straightforward
wording.

As ZDNet notes, the communitys reaction has been quite hostile to the manufacturer who threatens to destroy their
property, and not without justification.

For my personal purchasing choices, behaving like this is enough to get on my blacklist of manufacturers, just like when
Sony willfully infected its customers with rootkit malware in 2005, and Sony made it onto my blacklist. (Its a high bar
to get there, and still, hardware makers keep inventing new audacious ways to clear that bar.)
Syndicated Article

This article was previously published at Private Internet Access.
(This is a post from Falkvinge on Liberty, obtained via RSS at this feed.)


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