If you're more the sporty type or if you just don't like wearing big, over the ear headphones, Jabra's Elite series of little earbuds might be for you. They do all the things: noise cancelling, custom sound levels for music, multiple microphones for calls, filtering out noise, and listening for you to ask Alexa, Siri, or Google to play that next song with up to 32 hours of battery life. The latest models, Elite 8 Active and Elite 10, might even be the toughest, most advanced earbuds ever? Wow! All shoved right into your ears. Best of all, Jabra seems happy to sell you their earbuds and not sell your data.
What could happen if something goes wrong?
Jabra -- a Denmark based company who privacy policy follows the EU'sGDPR privacy laws (which are way better than the privacy laws the US has...as the US doesn't have a federal consumer privacy law) seems to do a good job with privacy and security. For the most part, they sell hardware (their snazzy headphones), not you. They say clearly in their privacy policy, “under no circumstances will jabra sell your personal information.” This is good. They do say they can share some personal information with third parties, which is pretty normal, and they add that, “These third parties may not process your personal data for their own purposes.” Yay!
Yep, it seems like while other companies that make wearables were cooking up ways to use your personal information, Jabra was busy studying 62,000 ear scans to better design these buds to stay in your ears -- a much more worthy endeavor!
And really, these earbuds just don’t collect a whole lot of data on you. If you download the app to control certain features, which isn’t required to use these little headphones but sure makes things nicer, you’ll have to give them some basic personal information. But even the personal information you do enter into the app, like your gender, profile picture, or birthday, won't be sent to Jabra unless you share it. All in all, these earbuds feel pretty private. They are even the chosen earbuds of this *Privacy Not Included researcher!
Tips to protect yourself
- Consider deleting your location data in Jabra+ app
- Consider using your headphones without connecting it to an app. This way, you may decrease amount of data collected
- Use your device privacy controls to limit access to your personal information via app (do not give access to your camera, microphone, images, location unless necessary)
- Keep your app regularly updated
- Limit ad tracking via your device (eg on iPhone go to Privacy -> Advertising -> Limit ad tracking) and biggest ad networks (for Google, go to Google account and turn off ad personalization)
- Request your data be deleted once you stop using the app. Simply deleting an app from your device usually does not erase your personal data.
- When starting a sign-up, do not agree to tracking of your data if possible.
Can it snoop on me?
Camera
Device: No
App: No
Microphone
Device: Yes
App: Yes
Tracks location
Device: No
App: Yes
What can be used to sign up?
Yes
Phone
Yes
Third-party account
No
What data does the company collect?
Personal
Name, address and country, email, telephone number; emails, letters, calls, messages or chats (if you contact the company).
Body related
Social
How does the company use this data?
How can you control your data?
What is the company’s known track record of protecting users’ data?
No known incidents in the last 3 years.
Child Privacy Information
Can this product be used offline?
User-friendly privacy information?
Jabra has two different privacy policies -- a general one and an app specific one -- that could be easy to confuse.
Links to privacy information
Does this product meet our Minimum Security Standards?
Encryption
Strong password
Bluetooth connection
Security updates
Manages vulnerabilities
Privacy policy
Dive Deeper
-
The best wireless earbuds to buy right nowThe Verge
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Tech for Better Hearing and WellbeingDealerscope
-
Jabra Elite 3 review: nailing the essentials for $80The Verge
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