Online music streamer Spotify Inc on Friday defended itself after angry users accused it of abusive personal data collection by asking for access to their contacts and photographs.
Earlier this week, the firm had described the changes on its Web site as an “update” of its general user terms and conditions and its privacy policy, intended “to tailor improved experiences to our users, and build new and personalized products for the future.”
Users of the streaming service’s application for smartphones and mobile devices are to over the next few weeks receive a prompt asking them to agree to the new terms, which include being asked for access to their address books, photographs and GPS location.
On Twitter, hundreds of customers complained, many of them linking to articles on technology Web sites, such as that of Wired, that were critical of the move.
On Friday, one of the creators of the hugely popular online game Minecraft, Markus Persson of Sweden, told his 2.4 million Twitter followers that he had “canceled” his Spotify subscription.
“As a consumer, I’ve always loved your service. You’re the reason I stopped pirating music. Please consider not being evil,” he wrote.
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek responded directly to him: “Have you read our blog? We explicitly will ask when using camera or GPS.”
Ek also said that having access to photographs would help users “if you want to personalize a playlist by having a custom image or a new profile pic.”
Several hours after that exchange, Ek posted a link to a new blogpost entitled, “SORRY.”
“We apologize ... 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,” he wrote.
“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 we will only use it for specific purposes that will allow you to customize your Spotify experience,” he added.
“We will never scan or import your contacts without your permission... In the future, we may want to give you the ability to find your friends on Spotify by searching for Spotify users in your contacts if you choose to do that,” he said.
The Swedish group — which claims to have more than 75 million users in 58 countries, including more than 20 million who use its premium paying site — is facing stiff competition from US rival Apple Inc, whose Apple Music was launched on June 30.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San