Your premium Bose headphones may be spying on you

Do you own a pair of premium wireless headphone from Bose? Chances are your music, podcasts and other audio activities are being spied on by the company as claimed by a lawsuit.

Kyle Zak, once an avid user of Bose headphones has filed a lawsuit at the federal court of Chicago seeking an injunction to stop Bose from breach of privacy laws by acquiring and selling consumer information without permission. Zak claims Bose spies on its customers who use its wireless headphones when they connect to the Bose Connect app from App Store or Google Play store to their smartphones.

"People should be uncomfortable with it," Christopher Dore, Zak's lawyer told Reuters. "People put headphones on their head because they think it's private, but they can be giving out information they don't want to share."

Zak says he bought a pair of QuietComfort headphones from Bose for $350 (£273) and took their suggestion to download the Bose Connect app to get the most out of the accessory. The app in process sought his info like name and e-mail address, a standard procedure for registering on apps.

He was however, shocked when he learned that Bose allegedly sent "all available media information" from his smartphone to third parties such as Segment.io, which collects customer data and sends it anywhere and everywhere.

Audio choices offer "an incredible amount of insight" into customers' personalities, behaviour, politics and religious views, citing as an example that a person who listens to Muslim prayers might "very likely" be a Muslim, the complaint said.

Zak is now seeking millions of dollars in damages on behalf of buyers of headphones and speakers, from the company. Some of the models he mentions in the lawsuit are QuietComfort 35 (pictured above), QuietControl 30, SoundLink Around-Ear Wireless Headphones II, SoundLink Color II, SoundSport Wireless and SoundSport Pulse Wireless.

The company has not responded to the allegations yet.