MUMBAI: MUMBAI: If the recent changes in Spotify’s privacy bothered you, fret not for it has bothered Spotify CEO Daniel Ek as well.
As the latest update on terms and conditions and privacy policy was about to be rolled out, the music service faced a series of criticism from music lovers. To curb the damage, the CEO issued a statement to clear up the controversy around it and also apologised for the same.
According to the new privacy policy, the service request permission to access new types of information, including photos, mobile device location, voice controls, and contacts. Commenting on this, Ek said, “If you do not want to share this kind of information, you do not have to. We will ask for your express permission before accessing any of this data – and we will only use it for specific purposes that will allow you to customise your Spotify experience.”
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He also admitted that the new policies have caused a lot of confusion among service users on the type of information accessed by Spotify. EK said, “We apologise for that. We should have done a better job in communicating what these policies mean and how any information you choose to share will – and will not – be used.”
The company stated that it understands people’s concerns about their personal information and ensured full commitment to protect users’ privacy.
Spotify also clarified that it will never access photos of users without explicit permission and it will never scan or import photo library or camera roll. The pictures would be used if given permission to access photos or images that are specifically chosen by the user.
The service will not gather or use the location of mobile device with permission. Music playlist will not be update based on the area, Ek added. In case, after the location sharing option is activated, users can easily stop sharing it.
The same applies in the case of voice, contacts and sharing, which also can be disabled.
The company will also update the privacy policy in the coming weeks.
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