22.6.15

 

How badly will Audible misuse my contact list?


In today's world, where our books, music, and photos belong to the Cloud rather than to ourselves, one problem we face is commercial concerns insisting on increased access to personal data.

I received the following note from Audible:

It looks like you may have an older version of Audible app installed on your device which needs to be updated before 6/30/15 to ensure that you enjoy uninterrupted access to your library.
Option 1: Continue to use the older version of the app.
If you receive an error message when you attempt to sign in, look in your emails for a password that you will need for sign in.
OR
Option 2 (Recommended): Upgrade to the latest version.
...

Warmest Regards,
The Audible Team
What the note doesn't mention is that updating the app requires giving Audible access to my contacts list.

Does anyone know how Audible is using the contact list? Worst case scenario is they email advertisements to my friends in my name, telling them what I am currently reading.

Do customers have any legal redress? Changing the terms of service to require access to the customer's contact list is the sort of thing the law should protect against.


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Comments:
At the moment they might be using it for something as harmless (and useless) as implementing Share option using their interface, later this might change. On android platform it's useful to have XPrivacy - a little something that intercepts all attempts made by application to access a certain list of system calls and gives user an option either allow it or deny and give fake results to the app.
 
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