[charlesray]

"I pay £10 a month to avoid this crap"

I don't understand this concept. I pay $10 a month get rid of ads, to be able to use the mobile app, and to get higher quality streams. There was never any reason to believe being a paid member had any impact on the data Spotify collects from you.

[thomasrossi]

I notice two things: 1) why shouldn't Apple collect the very same data? 2) apparently users are willing to pay for privacy, that's pretty cool! Something like vysk will actually have some space.

[charlesray]

"1) why shouldn't Apple collect the very same data?"

How do we know they don't? Has anyone read the privacy policy lately?

I mean, the only reason anyone flipped about Microsoft's privacy policy is because they took the unusual step of making it understandable to the layman. And they were crucified for that.

[thomasrossi]

From a juridical point of view that was really nice of them. It's a step toward Latin Law, where each man is entitled to understand what he is signing (opposed to the Anglo-saxon where you assume anything can get signed, therefore you need additional laws to protect the people - I am not commenting on such laws)

[jalfresi]

It appears that the privacy policy makes several references to advertising. I pay money so I don't receive any advertising, so Spotify make no money from me that way.

The part that concerns me is that my data can now be sold to someone else, with ever more excruciating detail about me. Thats the part that concerns me; I don't have an arrangement with those third parties.

[charlesray]

My experience with panic about privacy policies is that they virtually always sound far worse than they actually are. For example, access to local files (contacts, photos, music) tends to be an all or nothing thing, and Spotify of course needs access to your local music files.

I also don't think they are selling your data to generate revenue. That's a baseless assumption at best and reckless fear-mongering at worst. The one area where many agree Apple Music has got the leg up on Spotify is music discovery. It's pretty obvious, to me at least, that Spotify wants to gather as much data as possible about what you listen to and how you listen to it, then have the freedom to pass that on to third-party data analysis companies who might be better than they are at identifying your tastes. The Discover Weekly playlist, for example, has been a big hit and was created by a company they acquired.

[axx]

I'm sure the privacy policy is the same for everyone whether you're paying or not. As far as i remember, a huge part of spotify users don't pay, but listen to those awful ads (i have no idea how one can enjoy music with ads).

So i'm pretty sure, they won't show/play us (paying) customers any ads. Because if they would, many people will cancel their subscription (me included).