Spotify wanted to collect everything that you don’t want to share with strangers and that includes your personal photos.
The Internet is overflowing with the reports about a music streaming service – Spotify, who has revealed an updated version of its privacy policy created an online counterattack against the service provider.
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Spotify’s CEO Apologises For Collecting Private Data of its Users | Image Credit: Fast Company
The Spotify users became outraged over a number of new statements that have been included within the new privacy policy, one of which states:
“With your permission, we may collect information stored on your mobile device, such as contacts, photos, or media files. Local law may require that you seek the consent of your contacts to provide their personal information to Spotify, which may use that information for the purposes specified in this Privacy Policy.”
The above statement is the one with which most of the users are concerned because the company can collect personal data stored on your phone like your pictures and contacts.
So what we believe is any application or website collecting personal information like pictures or contacts of the user should need to provide a detailed explanation about why they need to gain access to these data. But the people over at Spotify simply failed to do so!
On the other hand, the news publications, as well as the readers, didn’t play their part well in interpreting the foremost and the key clause of the privacy policy, “with your permission.”
These three words clearly state that Spotify will ask you for a permission to collect the information instead of stealing it from your device. And apart from all that, they are also providing the ability to opt-out from this and continue using their service normally.
Why Spotify Need An Access To Pictures And Contacts?
Okay, so now you must be wondering that why Spotify, a music streaming service provider, would require an access to your personal information. After reading their new privacy policy, I concluded that Spotify is preparing to implement and launch some new features within their mobile app in the near future.
Even though no official statement has been made regarding the future updates but the company does state in a blog post, “The data we access simply helps us to tailor improved experiences to our users, and build new and personalized products for the future.”
To further clear your doubts about why the company need an access to your personal information like pictures or contacts, we stumbled upon an interesting Twitter conversation between Markus Persson, creator of Minecraft and Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify.
Persson was so annoyed because of the new privacy policy that he cancelled his Spotify subscription and tweeted, “I just cancelled mine too”
And in a response, Ek tweeted: “have you read our blog? We explicitly will ask when using camera or GPS. However, both changing playlist image and running feature”
@notch have you read our blog? We explicitly will ask when using camera or GPS. However both changing playlist image and running feature
— Daniel Ek (@eldsjal) August 21, 2015
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Ek, while further clearing his point, said: “this is a bizarre comment. Twitter doesn’t need your photos. But it’s nice that I can post a photo.” Moreover, he told: “similarly, I’d argue it’s a nice thing that I can upload a photo to my playlist to personalize it.”
@notch similarly, I’d argue it’s a nice thing that I can upload a photo to my playlist to personalize it.
— Daniel Ek (@eldsjal) August 21, 2015
What Happened Next?
You won’t believe what happened after that. Daniel Ek, the CEO of Spotify went out of his way to write a blog post to apologize about the confusion caused by the new privacy policy and further clarify his point about what kind of information they need an access to and what are they going to do with it.
Ek tweeted: “SORRY. Privacy super impact. We should have done better explaining new terms. Just posted; hope it clears things up.”
SORRY. Privacy super impt. We should have done better explaining new terms. Just posted; hope it clears things up. http://t.co/ASh34F0Zed
— Daniel Ek (@eldsjal) August 21, 2015
The beginning of his blog post reads:
“In our new privacy policy, we indicated that we may ask your permission to access new types of information, including photos, mobile device location, voice controls, and your contacts. Let me be crystal clear here: If you don’t want to share this kind of information, you don’t have to. We will ask for your express permission before accessing any of this data.”
And as I already speculated above, Ek said:
“We will only use it for specific purposes that will allow you to customize your Spotify experience.”
If interested, then head over to this link where you can read the whole explanation about what Spotify need and why they need.
At the end of his blog post, he added that “We are also going to update the new Privacy Policy in the coming weeks to better reflect what we have explained above.”
So until then don’t worry, stay calm and wait for the release of new and updated privacy policy.
We will keep you updated!
