Spotify windows application shows local music files without my consent (privacy issue!)

[dontcarefornick]

Today I activated my Spotify Premium again (I was premium user in the past). Today I downloaded and installed Spotify Windows application for my PC, Windows 10. When I started playing music I noticed under section 'Songs' a song by a singer who's music I also have stored locally. When I clicked on this one song, it brought me to the list of songs and on top of the page it says 'Local Files'. I was appalled! I never game Spotify consent to load my local music into your application! I want to use Spotify stricly to listen to Your music. My music is private and no business of Spotify!

After installation I changed the place where Spotify should store its files, and its on the same (separate drive) where my local music is stored. I created a new map for Spotify music, which is outside of the maps with my local music (so the location is in the root of this separate drive), and next to this new map for local Spotify music are the two other maps with local music.

Before posting here I doublechecked in Settings that my option to 'Show local files' is turned Off, and it is turned off.

Plan

Premium

Device

PC

Operating System

Windows 10

My Issue

Privacy issue! Spotify loads local files into Spotify Windows application without any consent automatically (and I'm very angry about this!). 

Please fix this a.s.a.p. Currently I'm thinking about filing a complaint with the Dutch Data Protection Authority. As no consent is given, and was never given in the past.

[Ivan]

Hey there @dontcarefornick!

Thanks for reaching out to us. Privacy and security are very important to us and we'll do our best to help you sort this out. 

We can suggest that you start off by opening the app's Settings > Scroll down to Local Files > switch Show Local Files on > remove the source/sources where the songs you see are located.

If you are no longer using Local Files you can remove all sources. After that you can switch Show Local Files off.

If the issue persists, you can take a look at this page and leave a +Vote and your details if that matches what you're experiencing.

Keep us posted on how it goes, we'll be here if you need more help.

[dontcarefornick]

Dear Ivan, 

It looks like you didn't read my original post, or didn't read it well enough!

The only thing I did was change the option 'Offline songs storage' to point it on separate drive for example drive F: and I created a new Empty map with No music in it.

However what Spotify did was take All the music files from Other maps on the same drive and load them into Spotify. Option 'Show local files' under 'Local files' section is Deselected and was Never selected! When I turn the option On, it shows No sources whatsoever. And that is not strange as I already stated in my original post that I never added any sources, the whole option was Turned Off.

That is why I also put in the title Privacy issue. I never gave consent to Spotify to search Any maps on my PC. It just did so automatically with NO CONSENT!!!

[squeezebox81]

Thank you for bringing this up. Looks like Spotify behaves like everyone else, on one hand they "care about your privacy" and on the other siphon as much of your info as possible (yes, bad "defaults" also count).

Keep using the web app, it's harder for it to access your information. Avoid installing the full app.