Spotify Cookie Policy

Effective as of 29 May 2023

What are cookies?
How do we use cookies?
Options for managing cookies and interest-based ads
Updates to this Policy
How to contact us

This policy describes how Spotify uses cookies. From now on, we'll call it the 'Policy'. The purpose of this Policy is to provide you, a user of Spotify's services and/or websites (we'll collectively call these the 'Services'), with clear information about the purposes for which Spotify uses cookies and the choices you have when it comes to managing your cookie settings.

1. What are cookies?

Cookies are small pieces of text which are downloaded to your device, for example, when you visit a website. Cookies are useful because they allow Spotify and our partners to uniquely recognise your device and support the continuity of your experience, for example by helping us to understand your preferences or past actions. You can find more general information about cookies at: www.youronlinechoices.eu.

2. How do we use cookies?

Cookies do lots of different jobs, like letting you navigate between pages efficiently, remembering your preferences, and improving your user experience. They can also help to ensure that ads you see online are more relevant to you and your interests.

Spotify uses two main categories of cookie: (1) strictly necessary cookies; and (2) optional cookies:

1. Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are set by Spotify or a third party on our behalf, and are essential to enable you to use the features of our Services, such as technically delivering content, setting your privacy preferences, logging in, making payments or filling in forms. Without these cookies, our Services cannot be provided so you cannot decline them.

2. Optional Cookies

Optional cookies may be 'first party cookies' or 'third party cookies' as explained in the table below. Optional cookies also differ depending on the purpose they are used for, as explained in the first column.

First party cookies - these are cookies set directly by Spotify or by a third party at our request.
Optional Cookie Type	Purposes
First party functional cookies	These cookies allow our Services to remember choices you make such as your user name, language, or the region you are in and provide enhanced, more personal features and content. For example, these cookies can be used to remember changes you have made to parts of web pages that you can customise. If you do not allow these cookies then some of the choices you have made on previous visits to our Services will not be saved.
First party performance cookies	These cookies gather data about how visitors use our Services. For example, these cookies allow us to count visits to our website and to understand how visitors found the website. They also help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors interact with our Services. All of this helps us to measure and improve the performance of our Services. If you do not allow these cookies we will not receive data about your use of our Services to help us to monitor the performance of our Services.
First party targeting cookies	These cookies collect information about your browsing habits in order to deliver advertisements more relevant to you and to understand your interests. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement as well as help measure the effectiveness of the advertisements Spotify shares. These cookies log that you have visited a website and this information may be shared with other organisations such as advertisers. If you do not allow these cookies you will still experience advertising but it will be less tailored to you.
Third party cookies - these are cookies that are set directly by a third party or set by Spotify at the request of a third party, such as our analytics or advertising service providers. You can see a list of these partners at this link by expanding the relevant cookie category and clicking ‘List of IAB Vendors’.
Content Selection, delivery and reporting	Third party cookies are set for the following purposes relating to content selection, delivery and reporting: - to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks via social media. - a profile may be built about you and your interests which may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit.
Personalised Ads	Third party cookies are set for the following purposes relating to personalised ads: - select personalised ads - personalised ads can be shown to you based on a user profile or other historical user data; - create a personalised ads profile - a profile can be built about you and your interests to show you personalised ads that are relevant to you; and - select basic ads - ads can be shown using real-time information about the context in which the ad will be shown, such as the content you’re viewing, the app you’re using, your approximate location, or your device type.
Personalised Content	Third party cookies are set for the following purposes relating to personalised content: - create a personalised content profile - a profile can be built about you and your interests to show you personalised content that is relevant to you; and - select personalised content - personalised content can be shown to you based on a user profile or other historical user data.
Ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development	Third party cookies are set for the following purposes relating to ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development: - measure ad performance - the performance and effectiveness of ads that you see or interact with can be measured; - develop and improve products - your data can be used to improve existing systems and software, and to develop new products; - apply market research to generate audience insights - market research can be used to learn more about the audiences who visit sites/apps and view ads; and - measure content performance - the performance and effectiveness of content that you see or interact with can be measured.
The 'Always Active' purposes	Finally, third party cookies are also set for the purposes listed below. Although these purposes are described as 'Always Active', you can choose to disable them like the other optional cookies - please see Section 3 below: - ensuring security, preventing fraud, and debugging - your data can be used to monitor for and prevent fraudulent activity, and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely; - technically delivering ads or content - your device can receive and send information that allows you to see and interact with ads and content; - matching and combining offline data sources - data from offline data sources can be combined with your online activity in support of one or more purposes; - receiving and using automatically-sent device characteristics for identification - your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends, such as IP address or browser type; and - linking different devices - different devices can be determined as belonging to you or your household in support of one or more purposes. These purposes are described as 'Always Active'.

3. Options for managing cookies and interest-based ads

In this section we describe the different ways in which you can manage your cookie preferences, depending on the cookie type and your device type. You may need to combine two or more options to manage cookies on all of your devices.

Consent Management Platform

To allow you to manage your cookie preferences, Spotify uses something called a consent management platform or 'CMP', sometimes referred to as a 'cookie banner'. The CMP also allows us to maintain records of your consent. You may view the CMP and access your cookie settings at this link.

Using the CMP, you can:

consent to the setting of optional cookies by us and our third-party partners;
manage your preferences for how first party cookies are set according to the category of cookie, as described in Section 2 How do we use cookies?; and
manage your preferences for how third party cookies are set according to the purpose for which your data is processed or according to which third-party partners are involved. You may disable all third party cookies by toggling off the control next to 'store and/or access information' on a device; as set out above, certain third party optional cookie purposes are described as 'Always Active', however this means that if you do not wish cookie data to be processed for these purposes then you may toggle off this 'store and/or access information' control.

If you wish to update your consent choices via the CMP, please visit this link.

Please note that you will not be able to withdraw consent for cookies which are strictly necessary for the Service to operate.

Spotify participates in the IAB Europe Transparency and Consent Framework and complies with its specifications and policies. We use a consent management platform ('CMP') with the identification number 28.

Web Browser Settings

You can also use your web browser settings to accept, refuse and delete cookies. To do this, follow the instructions provided by your browser (usually located within the 'Help', 'Tools' or 'Edit' settings).

Mobile Identifiers

On your mobile device, your operating system may provide you with options to opt out of interest based advertising or to otherwise reset your 'mobile identifier' - a unique identifier that can be used to identify a mobile device which works in a similar way to a cookie. For example, you may use the 'Allow Apps to Request to Track' setting on iOS devices or the 'Opt out of Interest-Based Ads' on Android devices. These settings allow you to limit the use of information about your use of apps for purposes of serving ads tailored to your interests.

Interest-Based Advertising

You may opt-out of receiving interest-based advertisements by turning off the 'Tailored ads' toggle, located in the Privacy Settings page of your Spotify Account. If you opt-out of receiving interest-based ads using the Tailored ads toggle, Spotify will not share your information with third party advertising partners or use information received by them to show you interest-based ads. You may still receive ads when using the Services based on your Spotify registration information and your real-time usage of Spotify, but the ads may be less relevant to you.

Certain tailored advertisements that we, or a service provider acting on our behalf, display to you may include the 'Ad Choices' icon or another mechanism to opt out of receiving interest-based advertisements. You may click on the AdChoices icon or visit www.aboutads.info to:

learn more about the collection and use of information about your online activities for interest based advertising; or
opt out of having your data used for interest based advertising by Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) participating companies.

European users can also visit www.youronlinechoices.com to learn how to opt out of having their data used for interest-based advertising by European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance (EDAA) member companies.

4. Updates to this Policy

We may occasionally make changes to this Policy.

When we make material changes to this Policy, we'll provide you with prominent notice as appropriate under the circumstances. For example, we may display a prominent notice within the Spotify Service or send you an email or device notification.

5. How to contact us

Thank you for reading this Policy. If you have any questions about this Policy, please contact our Data Protection Officer by using the Customer Support contact form details on the Privacy Center or by writing to us at the following address:

Spotify AB

Regeringsgatan 19, SE-111 53 Stockholm

Sweden

We hope you enjoy Spotify!