Jay-Z's 'Magna Carta Holy Grail' App Criticized for Privacy Issues, Censored Music, Hacked Clones

BY Alex HudsonPublished Jul 5, 2013

As has been widely publicized, Jay-Z's new album, Magna Carta Holy Grail, was made available to Samsung Galaxy smartphone users first via an Android app. Unfortunately for Hova and Samsung, the rollout hasn't been entirely smooth, with the app becoming a target for hackers and critics alike.

As Billboard points out, many folks have taken exception to the app's rather intrusive permission requests, as it demands access to network communication, your phone's USB storage, GPS location, information regarding phone calls, and more.

In response, rapper Killer Mike tweeted a picture of the permission screen and commented, "I read this and……..'Naw I'm cool.'" Gawker, meanwhile, branded the app "a massive data-mining operation."

What's more, MTV notes that many fans who opted to download the app have complained that they received a censored edit rather than the explicit version.

Finally, to make matters even worse, McAfee blogger Irfan Asrar [via Digital Spy] reports that hackers have created cloned versions of the app, which are now making the rounds. These politically minded copies change the wallpaper to an image of Obama wearing headphones with the slogan "Yes We Scan." This play on Obama's "Yes We Can" campaign presumably refers to the controversy surrounding the American government's PRISM surveillance program.

It's not clear if the phoney app targets users in any other ways (such as gathering personal or financial data), but it's probably not worth the risk to download it. Then again, if you agree with Killer Mike, you might want to steer clear entirely.

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