When you use the automated Download your data function, you will receive several files in JSON format. JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation, and is a structured, commonly used format that is capable of being understood by both computers and human beings. Each file contains a different type of personal data as described below:
Recently, a Spotify user – Peter Steinberger – exercised this right of theirs, and then took to Twitter to share what all the data the music streaming service has been collecting. Tried the GDPR data export from Spotify. By default, you get like 6 JSON files with almost nothing.
Yes that is correct, as soon as your premium expires, you will not have access to any offline content you downloaded when you had premium, since offline playlists are a premium only feature. You can however stream those tracks from Spotify again if you are online. Fortunately, you're able to download music from Spotify on Android and iOS in order to preserve your precious data cap. Overall, Spotify Premium, which you need to subscribe to in order to download any music (the free plan doesn't allow offline playback), will let you download a total of 3,333 songs per device on a total of three devices. AudFree Spotify Playlist Downloader (Mac, Windows) If you are seeking a professional Spotify. To download the Spotify app and then play Spotify songs with the app seems to be the only way as we all know that Spotify offers protected songs only, which prevents us from listening to Spotify songs with other media players or downloading any songs from the platform to other devices for offline listening. I installed the desktop app again and as soon as I logged in it started downloading from OneDrive. I cancelled the downloading, opened settings in Spotify and your suggestion did sort of work. I activated local files and then just turned off Downloads and Music Library. So far it is behaving itself and not downloading, so thanks for this tip. If you’re using Spotify on desktop, but still want to take those songs or podcast episodes with you on your mobile device: Select songs to download automatically to your device by clicking the plus symbol next to any track; That plus symbol will turn into a checkmark, which means the song will sync to your phone next time it’s connected to WiFi.
| Playlist | A summary of the playlists created or saved, and any songs saved, including:
|
Streaming History (audio, video, and podcasts) | A list of items (e.g. songs, videos, and podcasts) listened to or watched in the past year, including:
|
Your Library | A summary (at the point of the date of the request) of the content saved in Your Library (songs, podcasts, and videos), including:
|
| Search queries | A list of searches made, including:
|
| Follow | This includes (where available) at the point of the request:
|
| Payments | This includes details of the payment method (where available):
|
| User Data | This includes (where available):
|
| Family Plan | Family plan data (if you own a Premium for Family plan) which includes your address, city, country, name, state, street, and postal code. |
| Inferences | We draw certain inferences about your interests and preferences based on your usage of the Spotify service and using data obtained from our advertisers and other advertising partners. This includes a list of market segments with which you are currently associated. Depending on your settings, this data may be used to serve interest-based advertising to you within the Spotify service. |
| Car Thing | This includes details associated with the Car Thing device (if you own a Car Thing device), including:
|
| Voice Input | A list of commands made by voice (where available), including:
|
Technical log files
If you have also received a copy of your technical log data, look for the “Read Me First” file provided with your data for a detailed description of the data.
Last updated: 27 December, 2019
EU’s law on user data and privacy – the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – has given users the right to request all their data that’s collected by a service or a company.
Recently, a Spotify user – Peter Steinberger – exercised this right of theirs, and then took to Twitter to share what all the data the music streaming service has been collecting.
Tried the GDPR data export from Spotify. By default, you get like 6 JSON files with almost nothing. After many emails and complaining and a month of waiting, I got a 250MB archive with basically EVERY INTERACTION I ever did with any Spotify client, all my searches. Everything. pic.twitter.com/ALVw6Auief
— Peter Steinberger (@steipete) August 2, 2018
Yeah, everything, including IP addresses, window sizes, connection timeouts, and what song user stops and when.
Any interaction I ever did, including window sizes, connection timeouts, what song I stopped when. Nothing particular interesting, just every-freaking-thing.
— Peter Steinberger (@steipete) August 2, 2018
Not only this, Steinberger found even the brand of their headphones in the data revealed by Spotify.
They even store the brand of headphone I use. How do you even get that data, digging deep in CoreBluetooth? pic.twitter.com/LnuDKxtW6v
— Peter Steinberger (@steipete) August 2, 2018
It’s not clear if the company officially offers a break up of what it does with all this data.
Of course, some of the data is used for offering customized experience to users. However, several users are of the opinion the company just collects everything it can, with no specific plan on how to use all the extra stuff.
Pretty sure it’s some “let’s collect all and aee what we can use” paradigm.
— Peter Steinberger (@steipete) August 2, 2018
To conclude, this is just one user sharing their data. More details could emerge if other Spotify users demand this info from the company and share that publicly.
PiunikaWeb is a unique initiative that mainly focuses on investigative journalism. This means we do a lot of hard work to come up with news stories that are either ‘exclusive,’ ‘breaking,’ or ‘curated’ in nature. Perhaps that’s the reason our work has been picked by the likes of Forbes, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and more. Do take a tour of our website to get a feel of our work. And if you like what we do, stay connected with us on Twitter (@PiunikaWeb) and other social media channels to receive timely updates on stories we publish.