Rap mogul Jay Z and smartphone giant Samsung are under investigation by the feds for alleged privacy violations. Jay Z and Samsung struck a unique $20 million business deal that included purchasing 1 million digital copies of Jay Z’s new album Magna Carta Holy Grail. Samsung galaxy users could download a free copy of the album via a ‘Magna Carta’ app on their smartphones 3 days before the album’s official release date. But almost immediately complaints arose over privacy concerns. The app required personal information from users before they could download the albums.
A number of users complained that the app requested the user’s login information for social media accounts. The app then logged into the user’s Twitter account and published tweets promoting Jay Z’s album.
Advocacy group Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) is taking action on these concerns, Rolling Stone reports. The privacy group has reportedly asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the app.
“Samsung failed to disclose material information about the privacy practices of the App, collected data unnecessary to the functioning of the Magna Carta App, deprived users of meaningful choice regarding the collection of their data, interfered with device functionality, and failed to implement reasonable data minimization procedures,” EPIC said in a statement obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
Samsung has acknowledged the complaint, releasing a statement reading, “We are aware of the complaint filed with the FTC and believe it is baseless. Samsung takes customer privacy and the protection of personal information very seriously. Any information obtained through the application download process was purely for customer verification purposes, app functionality purposes and for marketing communications, but only if the customer requests to receive those marketing communications.”
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