(AllHipHop News) Consumers now live in a world where companies are constantly gathering information about them from many different sources. Facebook likes, Google searches, and even the apps you download provide tells about your life.
With Jay-Z releasing his new album Magna Carta Holy Grail through a Samsung Galaxy app tomorrow questions are now rising about how much of your information will the service keep track of.
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Atlanta emcee Killer Mike made it clear he will not be one of the 1 million people to get access to the free download of Jay-Z’s new album. Mike tweeted out a photo of the app’s permissions which, if accepted, gives the product information about the purchaser’s location, network communications, and phone calls.
“Location services” and “network communications” are common permissions that allow the app to perform needed services to work properly. Location access is usually able to be turned off in the location services settings on the phone. If the app provides downloadable material, like the “Magna Carta” app, it has to be able to communicate with your device thus the “network communications” permission. But why would a music app need access to your phone calls?
According to the tech site androidcentral.com the reason could be innocent or malicious. Some apps need phone call info to be able to freeze the use of the app for incoming calls or as a piracy control, but the permission could be used to gather identifying information about the user. In some cases that info is harmless, but it could also be more personal items like online preferences and app history.
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AllHipHop.com attempted to contact representatives at Samsung for a statement about the “phone calls” permission request on the “Magna Carta” app. There was no response from Samsung at the time this article was published.