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Comment by afandian | Hacker News Reader

If you think this direction is bizarre, consider the 'cutting edge'.

In the 21st century my 'CD player' (Spotify) is tracking everything I listen to so they can sell the data to a company who will build a comprehensive psychological profile about me and try to influence where I spend my money (or worse, which way I vote).

This tweet specifically was bare-faced about it and appeared to be saying "our users are fine with this".

https://twitter.com/SpotifyBrands/status/875795928438931456

I can't blame people for wanting to go back to analogue, where the appliance you got to do a job did only that job.

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Theres a middle-ground though that doesn't require you to go back to analogue listening from decades past. Use something like iTunes or whatever other equivalent application with your own music. If you're not comfortable with possible tracking from digital downloads, you can still rip CDs to it. Seems more convenient than going back to LPs and all of the physical management that that entails.

Indeed. I was only pointing out that the 'bizarreness' bar is set pretty high these days.

Notwithstanding the fact that I wasn't arguing that there's no middle ground, I fear it won't last long. Lots of people prefer streaming services (myself for one) and this will accelerate the depletion of the digital purchase market (delivered by CD, DVD or network). Soon we won't have a choice.

Well you have your choice. You're choosing now.

And you think that Apple can't detect which CDs you ripped?

Don't rip with iTunes?

Then use an open source media player. There are plenty, personally I use Amarok.

I wonder how it impacts paid subscribers, since I don't get ads on Spotify.

In any case, of "things which are tracked" Spotify learning about my music preferences is something I'm OK with. It results in me discovering new music through their playlist/radio recommendations, something that I really like about Spotify.

I'm a paying Spotify customer and I love the suggestions. I've discovered loads of new stuff.

But I am very worried to hear what is being done, unchecked, with personal activity data. I'm not making a connection between Spotify and Cambridge Analytica, but this style of control already has legs.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/07/the-great...

I personally voluntarily allow tracking through Last.fm scrobbling, which lets you see aggregated data about what you listen to.

Agreed about that last part. And not just for music (although I do not use Spotify and that stuff anyways; I use local files or CDs), but also for television, where there are many other issues too, that would be corrected by analogue (although there are other ways to solve it too, analogue seems the simplest and neatest way).

You don't have to use a streaming service. Just buy MP3s, or buy CDs and rip to MP3/Ogg with an open-source ripper, and store the files on your computer and phone. Android has a built-in music player that plays Oggs just fine; no network connection needed.

Does Apple Music do the same? Apple has been more privacy-focussed than other companies, or at least has tried hard to portray themselves that way.

Does Apple Music do the same?

If they do, I'm having a hard time figuring out where I'd see it. There are no ads on Apple Music, at all, AFAICT. So to answer your question directly, I'm going with "no".

Not saying that they do, but who says that the ads need to be presented on the platform tracking the user?

And I'm not saying they don't, but I'm trying to picture Apple bundling up those data, selling them off in secret so that it appears that Apple's hands are clean. Then someone eventually figures it out, and Apple the Company That Cares About Your Privacy is fucking done. I'm sure there's someone within that company willing to take that chance if they might get a bigger bonus, but I like to believe there are enough opposing views around them that it doesn't happen.

Apple Music doesn't have a free version, at all, either. Spotify only has ads for the free version.

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