Spotify Messages Reading Personal Emails

[VMorgLtd]

Plan

Premium

Country

New Zealand / Australia

Device

EMAILS

My Question or Issue

Today I saw "A friend has sent you a message on spotify" which referenced artists he had emailed me spotify links to. I didn't click these links or do anything related to the email and the messages were sent at the same time as the email was received. 

He no longer has a spotify subscription and now I'm very concerned that Spotify is reading either my emails or his and activating a message chat based on what it reads in our emails.

I have since turned OFF chat on spotify and requested a data log of my privacy stats.

[VMorgLtd]

Looking back at the chat which after deleting and turning off, is back on without my approval on my phone, there is numerous Artists Pages, Songs or Playlists that have been shared via Messenger (Facebook) and say "Shared off Spotify" which leads me to think Spotify is reading a lot of my app data from Messenger to Emails on my iPhone.

[Billy-J]

Hey @VMorgLtd, thanks for reaching out to the Community!

That doesn’t sound like an email that came from Spotify, but let’s take a closer look. Can you let me know the sender email address? If it doesn’t end in @spotify.com, then please do not click on anything, and follow these steps.

If your friend’s account has been compromised, then it’s best for them to follow the steps provided here to regain access to their account.

Hope this helps!  

[VMorgLtd]

Kia ora Billy J,

Apologies but I gave more context in a reply that seems to now be missing.

The chat has re-enabled itself and I can see the chat from this discussion. There is data going back months and months from when they have shared Spotify artists/playlists with me using Messenger/Facebook and the time they were shared, including ones I have sent him. This means there is tracking between Spotify and Messenger despite me not having the apps connected. 

Then the Email he sent to me with numerous Spotify artists in it, I did not click any links in but the chat shared the acts from the emails at the time he sent the email. Signifying the chat automated this share between our accounts and showing a link between Spotify, Emails, Messenger etc.

This is a huge invasion of privacy and needs to be looked into.

[VMorgLtd]

For more context my Spotify App access from Facebook expired in 2023. My phone has "track data with other apps" turned off on Spotify so how does it connect my chat with a friend off Spotify and his account on Spotify. 

[VMorgLtd]

Kia ora Billy J -

I have now posted a few replies that seem to get deleted after posting.

I have no tracking enabled between apps, my Facebook connection has been expired to Spotify since 2023 and my Google Apps have no mention of Spotify.

Yet the Spotify App chat I have with my friend, included many playlists and artists we had previously shared on Messenger with "Shared off Spotify" mentioned above the tracks or music. 

Now the email I refer, was sent to myself CC'd and a booking agent and I did not click any links and he had not shared them on any platforms other than email. This then had "Shared off Spotify" next to the artists which shows that it read the emails and populated the chat. 

Why is Spotify able to read emails, and then correlated his email address to our Spotify Chat with no permission given between their email and messenger ???

Huge invasion of Privacy...

[Loneliest_Cabin]

Hi @VMorgLtd,  the historical shares you see in your Messages only reflect links to Spotify content you previously shared that the recipient clicked through to listen. When you share content from Spotify using your account, a unique identifier is added to the URL - similar to how other platforms do it. If no one clicks that link, then no connection for Messages is made, and it wouldn't show up in your chat history. You can share Spotify content with these unique URLs through any apps, like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, or email.

I hope this clears up how the feature works for you.