I see posts talking about good BIFL items but I don’t hear much about the other side of products that are bad or products you bought but don’t even use.
I see posts talking about good BIFL items but I don’t hear much about the other side of products that are bad or products you bought but don’t even use.
Bose Quiet Comfort II true wireless headphones.
I’d been toying with the idea forever. My earbuds are old, a little bulky, have some connectivity issues when one disconnects and it takes a lot of fussing to get them reconnected. So I decided to spend the money.
I get them from B&H. I get home, put them in, one of them has some sound issues—but other than that, the sound and fit were perfect. Like, they were my glass slipper. They fit perfectly, the seal was perfect, they wouldn’t ever hurt my ears after extended use…I was shocked.
But.
Having issues with one, I started messing with them, seeing if could get support or troubleshoot. Of course the first thing in the box is a QR for their app. Now, I never fuck with physical products apps. If I need an app, chances are I won’t use your shit. But I really wanted these to work, so I go to the app, and dig through the privacy policy.
Two addenda later, they’re trying to get me to sign the most obscene privacy policy ever. Listen to/record everything I play, collect a profile on me, listen to any ambient noise around the microphone, and weirdly, “map my head shape and movements?”
I deleted that app as quickly as I could. So I go to their support page on their site. Get into a chat with their customer service bot. It says, “replying to this message is agreement to our privacy policy.” So I open the link, read it…it kinda seems reasonable. Just talking about using my chat responses for training, standard. But then THREE layers of addenda deep I find here trying to get me to sign THE EXACT SAME FUCKIN POLICY.
I ran those fuckers back to the store. But not before trying to get someone on the phone about the legal matters. Yeah, nah. They wouldn’t connect me to someone in their legal dept. In fact, the very request seemed to puzzle them to no end.
FUCK BOSE. READ YOUR PRIVACY POLICIES.
Is it possible to accept to those terms but disconnect the app from internet access completely so that prevents any calling back to the server? I believe you should be able to run it without internet.
Still a shame that there exists such an invasive privacy policy. I use IEMs when I’m on the go and wired akg k371 when I’m at home.
Well, that’s actually what I was trying to find out. I tried getting their legal dept on the phone because I wanted to be 100% sure I could use those earbuds without ever agreeing to the policy. When they wouldn’t or couldn’t give me an answer, I said fuck them.
They were great headphones. But I didn’t even want to chance that kind of invasion. And I doubt there’d be any way I could be sure of a company clearly willing to violate my privacy so hard would not be collecting that data without my consent. Using their fuckin site was a minefield in itself because they were trying really fuckin hard to get me to sign that policy—not even sign it, just tacitly agree to it by responding to one message in order to get help. Too dicey for my liking.
I don’t know if any company would comply with this request, unless you’re calling a law firm of course. Lawyers’ time is expensive and they don’t spend it speaking to end-users. You could try emailing their legal department - they may have a customer service rep that understands the legal side of things.
Your feelings are well warranted. I can’t stand how invasive just about every device is these days. From apps to cars.
I would try denying it network permissions (if you’re on android) or just simply putting it on airplane mode and disconnecting all network to it.
We live in fucked up times. I don’t have the patience to read through privacy policies, so I basically have to avoid buying anything that has any kind of sensor on it.
I have some QC25 headphones I bought in 2015 and they’re still working well, other than having to replace the cushions a few times. No “smart” features, just a regular cable to plug them in. Noise canceling works well and I use it whenever I’m flying somewhere. They take AA batteries which is way more convenient than a built-in battery. I use Eneloops, and once the batteries don’t hold a charge well any more, I can just get new ones.