Clarity on Facebook's data sharing scandal

[ashjm]

Hi there,

10 year user of Spotify here looking for some answers.

I'd like to get some clarity on the issues currently reported on the news by Facebook and I would like to think that Spotify will provide me with a sensible answer to the question. Like many people, I've skipped reading a terms and conditions at the time so I rely on the honesty of Spotify and the community in answeirng these.

1. Did we need to log into Spotify with Facebook in order to 'authorise' (loose use of the word) Spotify to access our personal data?
2. In doing so, did we inadvertantly agree to our personal data being shared?
3. Did Spotify ever access our private Facebook messages through these means?
4. Is there a data exchange agreement between Spotify and Facebook?
5. For what use cases did Facebook offer you access to these messages?

Thank you.

[Staff · Accepted solution]

Hey @ashjm.

Spotify’s integration with Facebook has always been about sharing and discovering music and podcasts.  

No private Facebook messages are read through any of our current app integrations. In the past, users could add text while sharing tracks, and that accompanying text was visible to Spotify. But, this functionality has since been discontinued.

[ashjm]

1. Did we need to log into Spotify with Facebook in order to 'authorise' (loose use of the word) Spotify to access our personal data?
2. In doing so, did we inadvertantly agree to our personal data being shared?
3. Did Spotify ever access our private Facebook messages through these means?
4. Is there a data exchange agreement between Spotify and Facebook?
5. For what use cases did Facebook offer you access to these messages?

What about the rest? I need to understand what the relationship was between Facebook and Spotify that allowed this to take place. This isn't just about what the functional reasoning was, it's about why it was allowed to happen.