The company had to apologize to users after Spotify introduced a new privacy policy, which allows to read personal data on users’ phones, including pictures, contact and location data.

The users who didn’t like new terms of service were told to stop using Spotify, and some of them have done just that. The company tried to stop the backlash, and the CEO of the music streaming service apologized to users on the company’s website. He explained that Spotify was in the middle of rolling out new terms and conditions and privacy policy. Perhaps, this caused some “confusion “about what kind of data the service accesses and how this data is used afterwards. The Spotify’s CEO admitted they should have done a better job in communicating what the new policies mean.

Spotify explained that its users would have the right to refuse to share data, as the service will ask for their express permission before accessing any of it. Besides, Spotify pointed out that collected information would only be used for specific purposes aimed to customize Spotify experience.

Apparently, the new terms of service relate to features that the service is going to present around personalization and discovery: for example, Spotify Running (the one matching the BPM of music to the pace of a run) or Discover Weekly (the one curating a weekly playlist based on user tastes). Before, the representatives of the company said that the service was constantly innovating and evolving in order to deliver the best possible experience for the subscribers, and the information accessed just helped Spotify to tailor improved experiences to users. At the same time, the music streaming service emphasized that the privacy and security of the customers’ data was and would always be its highest priority.