More: Spotify pulls white supremacist 'hate music' from platform Before his death, Spotify had put XXXTentacion back on its playlists. Kelly faced allegations of sexual abuse and XXXTentacion, who was fatally shot in June, was arrested in 2016 with charges of aggravated assault against his pregnant girlfriend. Kelly and XXXTentacion from its playlists and recommendations after R. Spotify has taken a strong stance in public discourse about abusive behavior in the past, removing music from R. Spotify recently labeled a 2013 community forum post asking for a block feature as a 'good idea' but added that being able to block users 'isn't in our current road map.' And when a Twitter user asked Spotify in February to introduce a blocking feature – saying that her ex used her activity to harass her – the company responded, 'Right now it's not possible.'īuzzfeed reported that Spotify community forums were filled with complaints and requests for a block feature from users who were 'disturbed' by how their harassers could surveil their activity and draw conclusions on their current mindset from what they were listening to. In 2015, a petition was started calling for the service to change its policy. Users have criticized Spotify for its lack of a blocking feature in the past. He would send her emails about her music activity, convinced that her song choices were proof she wanted to get back together with him. But the one app she couldn't block him on was Spotify, and her boyfriend used the opening to monitor everything she was listening to. Used to harassĪ 26-year-old Boston woman in Buzzfeed's story discovered how much was public when she tried to block her abusive ex-boyfriend on all her social media after he intimidated her family and friends. There are no steps users can take to prevent someone from viewing their profiles. A default public profile would show your public playlists, recently played artists, who you're following and who's following you. You also wouldn't want to follow anyone, since anyone who finds your profile can see all the musicians and friends you're following.Īnd finally, every time you use Spotify, you would have to make sure to turn the Private Session feature on.īut even if you were to follow all of these steps, anyone who figures out your anonymous profile could learn a lot. Next, every playlist you create would have to be made secret. If you wanted to make a completely anonymous Spotify account, where no one would be able to know who you are or see what you're listening to, there are quite a few hoops you would have to jump through.įirst, you would have to create an account with a fake username and without linking it to your Facebook account. If you ever wanted to share your secret playlist with your friends, they wouldn't be able to see it.

Once you click to open a previously made playlist, the drop-down menu next to the Play button allows you make a playlist secret.

Users also can make their playlists secret, meaning that only the user can view the playlist – but this can only be done from the desktop app and after you've already made the playlist, which is public by default. There are a few small steps users can take to shield their listening habits from the public. By default, anyone with an account can also see your public playlists, your recently played music and your followers. As long as you have a Spotify account and you know the person's username, you can search for and follow any user. Spotify automatically shares all its users' activity with followers and with the public. If you're using Spotify, you may be making more of your musical tastes public than you realize. And its default settings prioritize sharing this information with the world, the better to help its network of users more easily find new music. The report illuminated a complaint that had been simmering in user forums: Spotify won't let users block another user from seeing their activity, unlike social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. SAN FRANCISCO – Most people probably don't set up their Spotify accounts thinking about who can see their listening habits and that someone could use this knowledge to harass them.īut that's exactly how some people are using the popular music streaming app, according to a report from Buzzfeed, which talked to women who said their ex-boyfriends were using the information Spotify makes public about individual users' listening habits to stalk and intimidate.

Spotify profile