Sonos kicked off the bunfight with an email to its customers last week outlining a draconian new privacy policy.

The new policy came into play as Sonos began compiling information such as customers’ audio settings, account and error data before it unveils a spanking new smart speaker integration system shortly.

Sonos has moved to ensure a smooth integration with voice activated smart speakers including Google Home and Amazon Echo.

Sonos received a global consumer backlash after it decreed that customers who don’t or won’t accept the new privacy statement with its specific terms and conditions, would not be able to update their Sonos gear’s software.

A spokesperson for Sonos confirmed this in a statement to the press saying:

If a customer chooses not to acknowledge the privacy statement, the customer will not be able to update the software on their Sonos system, and over time the functionality of the product will decrease.

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

This take it or leave it decree delivered with all the finesse of a Panzer Commander on the rampaged unleased a barrage of complaints from Sonos owners, globally.

Sonos isn’t alone in hammering out a revamped privacy policy dictating how it will collate customer information or how it is shared with third parties.

Several tech firms preceded the Sonos announcement with similar privacy policies.

Sonos did concede that consumers could refuse to provide specific types of personal data saying:

Users can opt out of submitting certain types of personal information to the company, for instance, additional usage data such as performance and activity information.

But, there’s a sting. Sonos owners can’t choose to withhold the kind of data Sonos models use to operate as they were designed to do.

One tech-savvy Sonos user who did not want to be named, told StereoNET the Sonos policy is a harbinger of things to come.

Most of them will invade a consumer’s privacy and there’s not much that can be done about this disturbing trend on a personal level. I think the battle has to be fought at a government level,

For its part Sonos insists there is no financial gain to be had from its new policy and that it does not onsell the information it collects to anyone else.

Privacy is sacred, according to a recent blog by Sonos’s Chief Legal Officer, Craig Shelburne.

When it comes to using your information, our principles are simple. We will be transparent about what data we’re collecting and why. We will protect your data as though it’s sacred.

What isn’t sacrosanct is a customer’s right to refuse the new privacy policy.