To turn it on when you are using a phone or tablet, tap Home, Settings, scroll to Social, and find the Private session toggle. One way to stop this is by opting to listen privately-but the setting needs to be turned on each time you use Spotify.

By default all your Spotify listening can be seen by people who are following you.

This could include Spotify introducing privacy checkups where people can review their settings.Д«ut what can you do now? One thing to consider is listening in a Private Session. There could be more transparency about how Spotify uses data and prompts that can вЂњnudge peopleвЂќ about privacy options, he says. вЂњThere are things that I think they could do much better,вЂќ Walshe says. There are a few steps you can take to limit how Spotify uses and collects your data-but not that many. Listening to a вЂњromanceвЂќ playlist on a Friday night? The ads may be very different to your Sunday morning вЂњroad tripвЂќ playlist. But if youвЂ™re into folk, the ads probably wonвЂ™t be the same. Like electronica? Brands can target ads at the genre. SpotifyвЂ™s advertising documents show how ads can be targeted at your mood and what you are doing. The more вЂњrelevantвЂќ an ad is, the more likely it is to attract a higher price. вЂњWe may obtain certain data about you, such as cookie id, mobile device id, or email address, and inferences about your interests and preferences from certain advertisers and advertising partners that allow us to deliver more relevant ads and measure their effectiveness,вЂќ it says. The companyвЂ™s privacy policy says it works with вЂњadvertising partnersвЂќ to share data and work out what your вЂњinterests or preferencesвЂќ are. Many of these personalization features are likely to involve systems that recommend new music and playlists to you.Д«ut thereвЂ™s also SpotifyвЂ™s advertising business-something thatвЂ™s increasingly linked to its burgeoning podcast empire. Its privacy policy says it can use your data for personalization, troubleshooting, developing new features and technology, marketing and advertising, research, and for other legal reasons. It's this behavioral data that helps Spotify go big on personalization. Other вЂњtechnical service partnersвЂќ provide Spotify with data that puts IP addresses onto maps to know what city and state youвЂ™re in. If you log in with Facebook, for instance, it can вЂњimport your informationвЂќ from there, including a Facebook user ID. Spotify can get extra information about you from other companies and services. If you use its вЂњHey SpotifyвЂќ voice controls, then it can also access these recordings. It can also get вЂњmotion-generated or orientation-generated mobile sensor dataвЂќ from your deviceвЂ™s accelerometer or gyroscope. The companyвЂ™s privacy policy also says it can get cookie data, IP addresses, the type of device youвЂ™re using, your browser type, your operating system, and information about some devices on your Wi-Fi network. If you pay, youвЂ™ll also give it your billing information. You can tell it your username, email, phone number, date of birth, gender, street address, and country. вЂњThey can be more concise, they can lay it out better.вЂќД«roadly, the rest of the data Spotify has about you is information you give it when youвЂ™re creating an account. вЂњI think they can use much clearer language,вЂќ says Pat Walshe, a data protection and privacy consultant who has researched SpotifyвЂ™s use of data. If you really want to know what Spotify knows about you, then you need to read its privacy policy, which runs to 4,500 words. But thatвЂ™s not the only data Spotify gets.

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