MESSAGE
| DATE | 2022-12-09 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] How deep the data tracking problem is today
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/when-your-data-tells-you-who-you-really-are-11670027707?mod=tech_lista_pos4
I don’t love the idea that my data is collected by websites, apps and
devices. Hackers could steal it. Advertisers could use it to get me to
buy more stuff. Plus, it’s also kind of creepy that I’m tracked
everywhere I go.
There are times when I want my data collected, though. Or at least,
there are times I don’t mind because I get something of value in return.
I’m reminded of that every year when Spotify sends me my Wrapped results.
Spotify Wrapped is a personalized, app-only experience that reveals data
such as the total minutes you spent streaming and your most replayed track.
PHOTO: NICOLE NGUYEN
Spotify Wrapped, for those who don’t partake in social media, is a
year-end analysis of users’ unique streaming habits released annually
since 2015 and the inspiration of many a meme.
In the latest Wrapped, which rolled out Nov. 30, Spotify told me I spent
12,035 minutes streaming this year—just over 200 hours—and I was in the
top 1% of listeners of a certain band I’m too shy to name. (It rhymes
with GPS.) I also learned that my musical mood shifts from “Intense
Uplifting Soothing” in the morning to “Acceptance Escapism Cathartic”
later on.
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Certainly, the made-for-social-media feature is a promotional tool for a
company locked in competition with Apple and Amazon. It’s also about
user retention, says Ziad Sultan, who leads personalization at Spotify.
The service “is about understanding our users so we can reflect their
taste back to them,” he adds.
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Each Wrapped tidbit provides insight into ourselves and our musical
year. For the first time, Spotify is assigning users one of 16 different
listening personalities. Mine is “The Early Adopter,” someone who is
“always seeking the next hot thing.” Seems right, since that’s my job, too.
Spotify users can find their own Wrapped details in the app. (Here’s a
mobile shortcut.) If you’re ashamed of your results this year, try using
the app’s private listening function. This hides your guilty pleasures
from Spotify’s personalization engine, so your profile might be more
publicly shareable next year.
For instance, here’s a tweet from one of many Spotify users who learned
some embarrassing truths about their listening habits when their 2022
Wrapped results arrived:
Year-end wrap-ups are no longer unique to Spotify: Apple Music users get
something called Replay; YouTube Music’s is called Recap. And Strava
offers its athletes Your Year in Sport, though the 2022 version isn’t
out yet.
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These snapshots remind us just how detailed and personal data collection
can be. It can be unsettling when companies are unclear about how much
data they collect, or how they use the data. It feels like a violation
when it’s leaked, or shared without our permission. I appreciate that
Spotify shows users what it can do with data it collects about us. I
wish more services did the same.
The D Word
Data collection has a bad reputation. The Facebook-Cambridge Analytica
crisis showed how mass collection and leaky developer access could
result in the exposure of tens of millions of people’s data. Plenty of
other apps capture sensitive location data and hand it to the ad-tech
industry and the government.
Spotify collects more data than is revealed in the Wrapped roundups. For
instance, Spotify also collects your general location through your IP
address, which according to its privacy policy, the company can use for
personalized recommendations and advertising. Even how many times you
listen to Harry Styles can be used in other unseen ways, especially if
you’re on a free account, where Spotify serves you ads. (Users can opt
out of tailored ads in the app’s account settings.)
The Wrapped experience includes a social-media-ready share button so
users can show off their top artists.
PHOTO: SPOTIFY
Other services show us some insights they glean from our data. Your
Facebook ad preferences page is what the company thinks you like based
on your activity and can read like the world’s weirdest mix of
interests. For me, that includes “hair follicle,” “Denver” and “Asian
Pasta.”
Google uses our phones’ whereabouts to report traffic information and
real-time data on whether a restaurant is busy. It gets more detailed
than that: If you have location history turned on, Google Timeline can
tell you where you went on any given day. If you use Google Photos,
it’ll show you images taken in those locations, too. Startling? Useful?
Both.
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Spotify telling me I listened to Phoebe Bridgers’s “Garden Song” 33
times is one thing. All the data-driven services I use giving me reports
about my comings and goings are another. But doing so—despite it likely
being a heavy number-crunching exercise—could open up the conversation
about data collection and give us more reason to choose the services we do.
MORE ON DATA AND PRIVACY
Worried About Personal Data Leaks? Here’s How to Lock Down Your Phone
How to Share Your Smartphone Location With Loved Ones—Not Big Tech
For starters, I’d like for Instagram to tell me who I stalked or
interacted with the most this year, or for Alexa to recount my
most-requested asks. I wish Peloton could reveal which day of the week
I’m laziest. I would love for Google Docs to produce a list of my most
overused words in 2022, or for Netflix to show me the kinds of
thumbnails I’m most likely to tap on. My smart air purifier could
probably calculate how often I burned toast. Twitter, please tell me how
many hours or days I’ve spent procrastinating on your app.
Spotify Wrapped reveals the kinds of deeply personal inferences that
companies and their algorithms can make from our data. It’s fun, but it
also gives us a chance to think about what data we shed as we use the
internet, and what companies are doing with it.
—For more WSJ Technology analysis, reviews, advice and headlines, sign
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Write to Nicole Nguyen at nicole.nguyen-at-wsj.com
--
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www2.mrbrklyn.com/resources - Unpublished Archive
http://www.coinhangout.com - coins!
http://www.brooklyn-living.com
Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
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