The Spotify Privacy Policy Has Changed. The Internet is Going Crazy.

Spotify’s new privacy policy has led its users to object to the streaming service that counts more than 20 million paid and 55 million free subscribers. With members threatening to leave the service over changes in terms and conditions, the Spotify chief executive, Daniel Ek, apologised publicly in a written blog post.

THE NEW SPOTIFY PRIVACY POLICY

The new terms and conditions of the music service include access to sensitive and sensor data, found on the users’ smartphones. Phone numbers, photographs, locations and other information stored in your phone have been sent to the Spotify servers if you’ve hit “yes” when the new Ts&Cs popped up.

Yep, that’s what you signed up for.

QUIT SPOTIFY

The hashtag #QuitSpotify has become trending after the announcement, and users all over the world express their complaints to the service with Markus Persson (also known as Notch), creator of Minecraft, tweeting to his 2.4 million followers that he was cancelling his own account.

Spotify has said in response that those changes are meant to improve the user experience. For example, new Spotify terms and conditions request access to how fast users move in order to help the Spotify Running app which matches beats per minute of songs it chooses to play, to the pace you run.

THE PUBLIC APOLOGY

Mr. Ek apologised in a blog post and he promised an update to the new policy, which will clarify it, but he did not suggest that the terms themselves would be changed.

What he wrote was that the team should have communicated the meaning of these policies better and make clear how the information users share with Spotify will -and will not- be used. Also, he noted that Spotify will not access photos, contacts, GPS or sensor without the user’s permission.

THERE IS A SOLUTION

If you don’t wish to give access to any personal data but you still love using Spotify, the only thing you have to do is accept the new terms of service, and then deny access every time a Spotify prompt hits your screen.

However, Spotify does not want to collect your personal data just for fun or because of a spy-type “New World Order” game. Contacts are most likely to assist you in connecting with friends on the app, and photos and location data are collected to provide advertising agencies with useful, marketing information.