Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Spotify GDPR data export: user receives 250MB containing every interaction

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 137 posts

Re: Spotify GDPR data export: user receives 250MB containing every interaction

#111

Post by PeterisP »

mirimir wrote: post #98
PeterisP wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if you accept a potentially unlimited number of CSV files/sheets. Many forms of data aren't really easily normalizable to a limited number of flat tables without losing information.

OK, then. How would someone who's not technically sophisticated interpret such JSON? I suppose that some service could handle it. But then there's another level of trust and GDPR compliance.

Open it in any decent plaintext editor/viewer, it'll likely have support for 'prettyprinting' json, and it'll be readable.

If you want to 'do stuff' with the data, then JSON is a very (IMHO most, but your mileage may vary) reasonable format; unless that data really is just a single flat table, it would be hard to blame them from picking this format.

Re: Spotify GDPR data export: user receives 250MB containing every interaction

#113

Post by Symbiote »

wiremine wrote: post #96

> Having the law say your personal data is owned by you and not some company just because it's on their server may turn out to be a landmark in consumer friendly legislation! It's interesting to think where this goes in the future. Can I demand my purchase history from physical McDonalds restaurants at some point? Why limit it to internet-related interactions? (Or maybe this is already included in GDPR and I'm just n…

You can already demand this data from McDonalds, if they retain it.

You've been able to for about 20 years, in some form with the previous laws.

(More commonly, you could demand the paper records your employer has about you.)

Re: Spotify GDPR data export: user receives 250MB containing every interaction

#114

Post by Symbiote »

rhcom2 wrote: post #57

Has anyone tried this request in the US? I'm assuming they would just tell you to politely shove it?

They are a Swedish company.

The British regulator considers the rules to apply to all people, not just European citizens, so I think the Swedish would have the same opinion.

In general, Europe has rights that apply to everyone, regardless of citizenship. This makes a difference when it comes to searches at the border, drone strikes, refugees and so on under the European Convention on Human Rights.

This should become a selling point for EU businesses.

Re: Spotify GDPR data export: user receives 250MB containing every interaction

#115

Post by dorkwood »

tensor wrote: post #34
tedeh wrote: post #2

What grand times we live in, where you can actually get this kind of data from the services that you use. Having the law say your personal data is owned by you and not some company just because it's on their server may turn out to be a landmark in consumer friendly legislation!

Frankly, I think a lot of this data isn't the users, but rather Spotify's. If Spotify didn't exist then the interaction data with it wouldn't exist. I don't see how it can possibly be "owned" only by the user here. Does a user "own" security footage in a store that they enter? Definitely not.

If Spotify invented a device that could read my thoughts, and stored them all in a file, who would own them? Me or Spotify?

Re: Spotify GDPR data export: user receives 250MB containing every interaction

#116

Post by fox8091 »

jdietrich wrote: post #30
m45t3r wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think about it, now it makes sense why big names in smartphone industry like Apple and Samsung are removing P2 plugs from smartphones in favor of more powerful interfaces like Lighting/USB-C: so you can track more information about the user. Just imagine: you can track which kind of phone a user that likes to listen to Heavy Metal, for example, likes to use, or which phone is more popular at the moment. Based…

There's a much more mundane explanation - waterproofing. Lightning and USB-C connectors can both be made intrinsically waterproof up to IPx7, while the 3.5mm jack can't. Waterproofing is a key point of differentiation for recent flagship phones. An iPhone 7 will survive a dip in a toilet bowl or a pint of beer, but an iPhone 6 probably won't.

To all the people saying "but waterproof 3.5mm", here's the thing. Despite having _more pins_, lightning and USB-C have the advantage of _active signalling_. So not just an "open/closed" signal, but an active communication saying something was plugged in. So while 3.5mm can be made where it doesn't damage the phone, water will still short the open/closed switch, causing false insertion events.

Re: Spotify GDPR data export: user receives 250MB containing every interaction

#117

Post by kungtotte »

fipple wrote: post #94
sbr464 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m upvoting and agree in the realistic point you are making, but feel this isn’t the most popular point of view right now? I personally believe info just shouldn’t be captured period, beyond reasons for authentication protection purposes/identifying malicious/off pattern use of my login/auth token. We are releasing a new business/info mgmt product soon that has no GA/full story/user tracking whatsoever. It’s not cle…

One thing that people constantly praise Spotify for is the quality of their music recommendations. You can find so many testimonials of people saying that their "Discover Weekly" playlist suggested them songs which they felt they had been searching for their whole lives. Needless to say, such accurate recommendations of music, which even close personal friends have trouble doing, is based on building as complete of a…

GDPR isn't about removing all tracking, it's about empowering users and allowing them to decide for themselves how their data is used.

If someone wants to avail themselves of Spotify's recommendations they have to opt in by sharing their data. So they make an active, informed, decision about what data Spotify gets to use. They also have legal recourse if it turns out Spotify is misusing the data (selling it to record labels, let's say).

We have had an analogous law here in Sweden for ages: if you apply for a permit you're allowed to set up security cameras pretty much anywhere on your property but you have to put up signs informing people that they're being filmed. This is so people can opt into surveillance. 99% of the time it's no big deal that you're being filmed, but it's never secret.

That's a good thing.

Re: Spotify GDPR data export: user receives 250MB containing every interaction

#118

Post by ec109685 »

mmanfrin wrote: post #88
swiley wrote: post #72

Man I was comfortable running spotify as the only non-free app on my Linux machines, now I'm not. It's back to ocp and mods/classical music/occasional purchased for me I guess... (except on my phone of course which is a lost cause)

Why are you uncomfortable with Spotify now?

Because they retain this data seemingly forever?

Re: Spotify GDPR data export: user receives 250MB containing every interaction

#119

Post by KenanSulayman »

zachruss92 wrote: post #85

While this is an extreme example, I'm not the least bit concerned about Spotify collecting this data. This data is likely used by Spotify to understand user behavior to improve user experience and improve their recommendation engine, or to simply understand how users interact with the app. I was delighted to find that Spotify sends you concert notifications of bands that I listened to the most. Personally, as long as…

> "this enables us to access your GPS or Bluetooth to provide location-aware functionality"

They only Bluetooth in the context of acquiring location data..

Re: Spotify GDPR data export: user receives 250MB containing every interaction

#120

Post by pymai »

jdietrich wrote: post #30
m45t3r wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think about it, now it makes sense why big names in smartphone industry like Apple and Samsung are removing P2 plugs from smartphones in favor of more powerful interfaces like Lighting/USB-C: so you can track more information about the user. Just imagine: you can track which kind of phone a user that likes to listen to Heavy Metal, for example, likes to use, or which phone is more popular at the moment. Based…

There's a much more mundane explanation - waterproofing. Lightning and USB-C connectors can both be made intrinsically waterproof up to IPx7, while the 3.5mm jack can't. Waterproofing is a key point of differentiation for recent flagship phones. An iPhone 7 will survive a dip in a toilet bowl or a pint of beer, but an iPhone 6 probably won't.

well then sony had been lying to me for years. the last 3 phones I've owned have had waterproof headphone jacks
Post reply on HN