[imagesource:pexels]

Social media has been flooded with colourful, easily consumable infographics since Spotify dropped their ‘Wrapped’ feature for 2023 yesterday.

While Spotify’s cutesy way of taking its users through their 2023 listening habits may feed the ego, many are becoming more suspicious of the turn to framing ‘big data’ collection as a fun little ’round-up’.

I may be biased because I’m old enough to remember ‘rewinding’ my cassette tapes with an HB pencil, but it’s not just nostalgia that’s feeding global doubt on whether Spotify wrapped is worth the ‘hype’.

In an era where our lives are becoming increasingly digital, even the music we listen to serves as a data goldmine, revealing personal insights that extend far beyond our musical preferences. From showcasing the number of times someone played a specific song, potentially hinting at their life circumstances, to proudly displaying one’s ranking among Taylor Swift’s most dedicated fans, Spotify’s annual Wrapped feature has become a digital rite of passage.

However, as much as Wrapped allows users to relish their musical journey, it’s also a testament to the treasure trove of personal information that advertisers seek to capitalise on. The graphic revelations, while nice to look at, raise concerns about the handling and safeguarding of user data.

While Spotify asserts that it refrains from selling user data to third parties and endeavors to shield users’ personal information, it does retain data for the duration an account exists. To qualify for the Wrapped experience, users merely need to listen to at least five artists and 30 songs for 30 seconds or more. That’s a low ‘entrance fee’ for permission to trawl through users’ data.

The irony doesn’t escape critics who view Wrapped as Spotify’s sly intrusion into users’ personal spaces. Evan Greer, director of the digital rights advocacy group Fight for the Future is just one of these critics attempting to spread awareness about the proverbial iceberg of violations lying just beneath the shiny surface.

“Spotify has done an amazing job of marketing surveillance as fun and getting people to not only participate in their own surveillance, but celebrate it and share it and brag about it to the world.”

“It’s kind of ironic that at the end of every year people are celebrating the fact that Spotify is spying on them,” remarks Greer, highlighting the paradox that music, often intertwined with personal and emotional aspects of our lives, is now a cog in the data machinery.

The inherent intimacy of music choices adds weight to concerns about privacy and data security. Users grapple with the allure of personalized music insights against the backdrop of increasing scrutiny over data handling by tech giants like Spotify.

Guilty as charged, I whipped out my Wrapped yesterday via the Spotify app. But each year as the graphics get slicker, more data is mined and the musicians get paid less, maybe it’s time to consider ‘Wrapping’ up our codependent relationship with the overbearing streaming service.

[source:bbc&wired]