Spotify wrapped started this trend seems other apps are following through. Seeing a summary of things you did with there app. Kind of gives you a hint how much other things are being tracked.
What do you mean by that?
It’s not my job to educate you
perfect 👌
Hahahaha
That actually requires very little data compared to the amount of data being collected. They collect absolutely everything all the time.
data retention
It’s the opposite - most regulatory frameworks require that you only retain data if you have a “legitimate purpose” for holding on to it; providing app features absolutely is a legitimate purpose, so by having a “wrapped” you can justify holding on to everything a user does - after all, you need it to provide features.
Nope. Especially under GDPR. To use an example of Spotify - having a “wrapped” is not part of the core offering and is not necessary for the service to work. Meaning they need your permission to store that data (or other legal framework).
I love hearing about how protective the GDPR is and wish it was a worldwide initiative with the teeth to truly protect humanity from themselves.
Music recommendations are part of the core offering though and keeping play history is pretty vital for that. There might be local ways to do it but probably not as good
That’s interesting never thought of that.
Isn’t that just basic data they already kept track of?
A boring dystopia
Not really sure what you mean basic but if tracking someone’s clicks on certain button, or features and can be traced back to you. It’s actually kind off putting so much for making your information anonymise which most companies claim.
But for Spotify they are tracking how many times you played different songs. Not trying to defend them, but for a music service I’m pretty sure they need to track that kind of information regardless. Might as well tally it up and show your own data to you
They only need aggregate data for that, they don’t need them to be assigned to a specific user account.
Music players have been keeping play counts since before the invention of the iPod. It’s a datapoint that users have come to expect. I actually wish services like Spotify or Apple Music did a better job of displaying this data throughout the year rather than just in end of year infographics.
Like I dunno, Google is literally collating your location data, I hardly think music plays is top secret info.
I actually wish services like Spotify or Apple Music did a better job of displaying this data throughout the year rather than just in end of year infographics.
Preach
Spotify > Search > Made For You > “On Repeat” / “Repeat Rewind” = not sufficient
Chad Google Play Music > sort by plays = perfect
I thought Google Play Music didn’t exist anymore?
Sure doesn’t yeah, guess I was just reliving a good feature memory 😉
I doubt it.
The kind of data used for “wrapped” type summaries are usually the kind of data that users want to be tracked because it powers features they want.
Like Spotify wrapped is based of Spotify play history, and being able to see your recently played songs is a feature people want.
Duolingo wrapped is based on lesson progress, and it has to track your progress else it doesn’t know what lesson you’re doing.
idk what other apps do this, it’s pretty rare for me, but afaict it’s all just normal stuff.
Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of privacy problems that apps try to fuck with, but I don’t think that yearly wrapped is likely to be one of them.
Yeah I don’t mind apps keeping track of how I’ve been using them. But if duolingo tells me where my friend got married and congratulates me on keeping my streak through that then we’re gonna have some concerns
Lucy does keep saying that she is always listening rather ominously
I use the journalling app Daylio, which has a wrapped feature. It’s all done locally, on device. Not every implementation of this feature is spying on you.
If it just uses data that is on your device right now, that is okay. But if it keeps track on things, even on your device, it can lead to security vulnerabilities, depending how it is stored how long it is kept.
And most importantly, enshittification and automatic updates could easily change that policy to retroactively hoover up all that precious data. This stuff is insanely valuable too.
Not saying daylio is doing it or going to. Just that keeping data comes with a risk. ideally, there should be clear documentation what is being kept, where and for how long.
You’re right, I should just refuse to trust any developers and go back to the paper journal I never used.
