Spotify even worse than the NSA

englishhippy

Vital Youth Team
New terms and conditions popping up on Spotify users screens give the Swedish streaming company sweeping new rights.

The “What we collect” section of the new terms seems scary enough:

By using or interacting with the Service, you are consenting to: the collection, use, sharing, and processing of information about your location, including any related interactions with the Spotify service and other Spotify users (as described in The information we collect); the use of cookies and other technologies; the transfer of your information outside of the country where you live; the collection, use, sharing, and other processing of your information, including for advertising-related purposes (as described in the rest of this Privacy Policy, so please keep on reading!); and the public availability of your information and the controls over such information as described in Sharing information.

But dig down and that additional information turns out to be pretty comprehensive:


If you connect to the Service using credentials from a Third Party Application (as defined in the Terms and Conditions of Use) (e.g., Facebook), you authorise us to collect your authentication information, such as your username and encrypted access credentials. We may also collect other information available on or through your Third Party Application account, including, for example, your name, profile picture, country, hometown, email address, date of birth, gender, friends’ names and profile pictures, and networks.

If you want to keep the intrusion down you really, really should not connect your Spotify account to your Facebook one:


You may integrate your Spotify account with Third Party Applications. If you do, we may receive similar information related to your interactions with the Service on the Third Party Application, as well as information about your publicly available activity on the Third Party Application. This includes, for example, your “Like”s and posts on Facebook. We may use cookies and other technologies to collect this information; you can learn more about such use in the section Information about cookies, other technologies, and third-party data collection of this Privacy Policy.

But it’s not just stuff in your Facebook account. The app will hunt around in your phone for more information about you:


Depending on the type of device that you use to interact with the Service and your settings, we may also collect information about your location based on, for example, your phone’s GPS location or other forms of locating mobile devices (e.g., Bluetooth). We may also collect sensor data (e.g., data about the speed of your movements, such as whether you are running, walking, or in transit).

And it’s well broadcast:


Certain information may always be publicly available to others and other information is made publicly available to others by default. And if you share information to a Third Party Application, that information is viewable on Spotify, regardless of how you set your privacy settings.

If you are a premium user and choose to defer the decision to accept Spotify will give you thirty days to acquiesce. Decide against trading your data for access to the service you'll no longer be able to use it but will still get charged unless you separately cancel your subscription.
 
Did you mean Spotify is an arm of the NSA, CIA...........................

I never agree to such terms and conditions, if I'm paying for a service or not, you're basically allowing people full access to your life, your friends, your movements and behaviour, I prefer privacy.


 
At this stage I'm pretty sure "they" have all the information on everyone everywhere, unless you've been living off the grid for the last 20 years.

They can have all the information on me they want, I truly couldn't give a fuck. What exactly can they do with it anyway?

 
Stephen Jay Hawkings - 22/8/2015 04:55

What exactly can they do with it anyway?



Identity theft for a start and all that can lead to.

IBM did something similar in the late 30's, early 40's for a client in Germany, he made use of the data.



 
Spotify will clarify its position on its wide-reaching terms and conditions. In a post entitled “SORRY”, company founder Daniel Ek said: “We have heard your concerns loud and clear. We are also going to update the new Privacy Policy in the coming weeks.”

In the post, Ek paints it as a misunderstanding of what Spotify was trying to do by hoovering up your photos, contacts, voice commands and location, and then sharing that information with advertisers and businesses. He said:


We should have done a better job in communicating what these policies mean and how any information you choose to share will – and will not – be used.

We understand people’s concerns about their personal information and are 100 per cent committed to protecting our users’ privacy and ensuring that you have control over the information you share.

Ek reiterated the information that Spotify is looking for and offered the reassurance that: “We will ask for your express permission before accessing any of this data – and we will only use it for specific purposes that will allow you to customise your Spotify experience.”

In doing so, he gave an insight into the plans the company has: “Spotify is a social platform and many people like to share playlists and music they discover with their friends. In the future, we may want to give you the ability to find your friends on Spotify by searching for Spotify users in your contacts if you choose to do that.”

Ek said that information shared with business partners would be anonymised. This is quite a concession, as most advertisers would want to target people.

Throughout the post, Ek emphasised that Spotify will not cull any data without explicit permission, but he does not say how that explicit permission would be obtained. If it’s a tick box at the end of pages and pages of legalease which no right thinking person would scroll through on a phone, it’s highly unlikely that anyone would read what they have given permission for. If one tick-box gives blanket permission and switches all the data gathering on it’s not far enough removed from the evil data mining users are strongly objecting to