It stinks.
Like many others today, I'm rather sad that Spotify chose to be creepy with its updated privacy policy changes.
Wanting access to our photos, contact lists, motion sensors and geo-location data is something that a streaming music app does not need, but wants as an ad-tech supported business model.
The user backlash and app deletions forced Spotify's CEO, Daniel Ek, to say sorry. It's all about new features. He told Minecraft founder, Notch, that Twitter does it too.
The Verge says users have unnecessary outrage.
The thing is, we see pretty well through the fluff.
Markus Persson, AKA Notch, called Spotify evil. He put it quite well when he tweeted to Spotify's CEO:
@eldsjal But I do understand how easy it is to make up small features to require access to the entire phone so you can sell your customers.
@eldsjal Feature creep for privacy invasion. I want NONE of those features. I want to stream music.
Ad-tech supported businesses need to wake up and realize that more people are caring about privacy and see through the ad world's data grabs. We're a bit tired of being packaged and sold in support of every dark alley ad auction.
In 2015, it is expected that 21.8 billion dollars of ad revenue will be lost due to ad blocking usage. That number is expected to rise to 41.4 billion dollars in 2016.
Everyone expects ad blocking will rise because users are tired of the pernicious effects of ads which include persistent tracking, malverts and bandwidth hijacking.
So when an app like Spotify says they want all of our data, we get how it can be used for more ad targeting. We're also aware of the daily data thefts resulting from hacks.
When The Verge says we are overreacting, we also understand that the argument is simply a snake oil pitch. Afterall, The Verge is heavily vested in ad-tech succeeding. Add Ghostery to your browser and see how much ad-tech tracking of us occurs on their site.
But, everyone is doing it, right?
Notch tweeted:
@Johan_Bild So because two people drive drunk, three people might as well? Screw that slippery slope reasoning.
@Johan_Bild @hoaxisaliar and hopefully we can make them change by not accepting it.
And that's the crux of the matter: It's up to us to accept it or say no.
I said no to Spotify and deleted the app. Sorry Spotify, but your side of the fence (apparently shared by The Verge and others) is not where I want be.
