How Spotify collects, uses, shares, and protects your personal data
Overall Score
Risk by Category
Spotify's Privacy Policy details extensive data collection practices including account information, usage data, device details, location, and communications to provide personalized music streaming, recommendations, and advertising. Data is shared with affiliates, service providers, advertisers, and business partners. Users have rights to access, delete, and manage data under GDPR/CCPA, with retention generally tied to account lifecycle plus 90 days post-deletion, though some data retained longer for legal reasons. Security measures include encryption and industry standards, but broad sharing for ads raises privacy concerns.
Collects detailed listening history, device info, location, and ad IDs for personalization and ads.
Shares data with advertisers, partners, and affiliates without granular opt-outs.
Aggregated analytics and legal compliance data retained beyond account deletion.
Options to download data, delete account, manage privacy settings, and opt-out of personalized ads.
Supports rights like access, rectification, erasure, and data portability.
Clear breakdowns of data categories, uses, and sharing practices.
Spotify collects the following categories of personal data. High Risk categories are used for advertising profiling or involve sensitive personal information.
Name, email, password, date of birth, profile info.
Songs played, playlists, search history, session duration.
Precise location for local content and events.
IP address, browser type, device ID, crash reports.
Your data serves the following purposes. Mandatory purposes cannot be disabled without canceling the service. Opt-out available purposes allow some user control.
Listening history and preferences used for recommendations and playlists.
Data shared to deliver targeted ads across platforms.
Account and payment data for streaming and billing.
Spotify shares data with several categories of third parties. Sharing with advertising partners is extensive and represents the primary commercial use of your behavioral data.
Shared with ad partners for targeted marketing.
Shared with providers like Google Analytics.
Cloud storage, payment processors, customer support.
Shared within Spotify group for operations.
The following rights may be available to you depending on your region. EU/EEA users have the broadest protections under GDPR. Non-EU users have more limited guarantees.
Download your data via privacy settings.
Export personal data in standard formats.
Delete account; data processed within 90 days, exceptions apply.
Data is retained for different periods depending on category, and security disclosures vary in depth. The policy highlights the following retention and transparency points.
Retention Periods
Most data deleted within 90 days of account deletion request.
Retained as required by law, potentially years.
Retained indefinitely for service improvement.
Security & Transparency
Data encrypted in transit and at rest using industry standards.
Notifies users and authorities as required by law.
Adheres to ISO 27001 and other certifications.
Source Text
Details 10+ categories including usage, location, device.
Interpretation
Very broad scope increases privacy risks.
Source Text
Shares with affiliates, providers, advertisers.
Interpretation
Standard but lacks strict limits on ad sharing.
Source Text
Manage ads, download data, delete account.
Interpretation
Empowers users effectively.
Source Text
90 days post-deletion, longer for legal needs.
Interpretation
Reasonable but exceptions weaken it.
Account info, listening history, device details, location, communications, and more as outlined in Section 2.