Spotify thrashed because of its new privacy rules – Le Figaro

The Swedish platform online music listening has changed its terms of use, causing great concern of some of its users.

The online music listening service Spotify defended himself Friday accusations abusive collection of personal data after a slingshot disgruntled users that the application asks them to access their contacts, photos and GPS location.

Spotify presented these changes on its website Monday as an update of the general conditions of use and its policy of protecting privacy. They should help the Swedish company to “create a better experience for [the] users, and build new and customized products for the future.”

This update is very poorly placed with certain users, some more known than others. Friday, one of the creators of the game Minecraft, Markus Persson says “Notch” great figure of new technologies in Sweden, announced to his 2.4 million followers that he had unsubscribed from Spotify. “As a customer, I always loved you. You are the ones who convinced me to stop pirating music. Please consider not to do evil, “he has written

The owner of Spotify, Daniel Ek, responded directly to him.” You read our blog? We will make an explicit request before using your camera or GPS. ” He also explained that access to photos allowed users to “personalize a playlist having any image or a new profile picture.”

A few hours after this exchange, Daniel Ek wrote about Spotify’s website he was “sorry” as the reasons for these changes have not been well detailed. “We apologize. We should have done better to communicate what these rules mean and how will be used – or not – any information you choose to share, “he emphasized

About the. authorization to access the Address Book, for example, he explained: “We’ll search or never will import your contacts without your permission. (…) In the future, we may want to give you the opportunity to find your friends on Spotify users by searching for your contacts if you choose to do it. “

Some specialized sites have defended Spotify, criticizing undue controversy. “The problem of Spotify is not privacy, but it sucks to communicate with its users”, ensured eg the site The Next Web.

(with AFP)