Samsung Calls Jay-Z App Privacy Jabs "Baseless"

Jay-Z's Magna Carta album release with a Samsung-centric app has lit the flame for some rather simple privacy invasion concerns. While many apps request the data this media-touting title does, the scale of this release found itself the subject of chatter from officials at U.S. civil liberties group the Electronic Privacy Information Centre (EPIC). This week Samsung fires back.

Samsung has made clear that they've had no intention of selling the information the app collects, nor do they use said information for malicious – or unwarranted – purposes. What information, you might ask? According to EPIC, no less than "massive amounts of personal information... including location data" which they'd then use for "hidden spam techniques."

This app, they say, promotes itself with these hidden spam techniques to users the initial user is connected to without the knowledge of the user. Of course if you've used the app yourself, you'll know what they're talking about: sharing through Facebook and Twitter.

"We are aware of the complaint... 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.

Samsung is in no way inappropriately using or selling any information obtained from users through the download process." – Samsung Representative

If you wanted to see a set of lyrics from one of the Magna Carta Holy Grail songs before the launch of the album, the app required you to share the fact that you were doing so with Facebook or Twitter. At this point in time, sharing is not only still voluntary – it's relatively hard to do. You can read the full app Privacy Policy for more information if you do so wish.

VIA: Express