This is an old version of this policy which is no longer valid. The latest version can be found here.
Spotify Privacy Policy
Effective as of 8 June 2023
- About this Policy
- Your personal data rights and controls
- Personal data we collect about you
- Our purpose for using your personal data
- Sharing your personal data
- Data retention
- Transfer to other countries
- Keeping your personal data safe
- Children
- Changes to this Policy
- How to contact us
1. About this Policy
This Policy describes how we process your personal data at Spotify AB.
It applies to your use of:
- all Spotify streaming services as a user. For example this includes:
- your use of Spotify on any device
- the personalisation of your user experience
- the infrastructure required to provide our services
- connection of your Spotify account with another application
- both our free or paid streaming options (each a 'Service Option')
- other Spotify services which include a link to this Privacy Policy. These include Spotify websites, Customer Service and the Community Site
From now on, we'll collectively call these the 'Spotify Service'.
From time to time, we may develop new or offer additional services. They'll also be subject to this Policy, unless stated otherwise when we introduce them. If necessary depending on the relevant jurisdictions and regulations, any separate consent may be requested from you.
This Policy is not...
- the Spotify Terms of Use, which is a separate document. The Terms of Use outline the legal contract between you and Spotify for using the Spotify Service. It also describes the rules of Spotify and your user rights
- about your use of other Spotify services which have their own privacy policy. Other Spotify services include Anchor, Soundtrap, Megaphone and the Spotify Live app
Other resources and settings
Key information about your personal data is right here in this Policy. However, you might want to take a look at our other privacy resources and controls:
- Privacy Center: A user-friendly hub with summaries of key topics. See Section 2 'Your personal data rights and controls' for more on user rights.
- Privacy Settings: Control the processing of certain personal data.
- Notification Settings: Set which marketing communications you get from Spotify.
- Settings (found in the Desktop and Mobile versions of Spotify): Control certain aspects of the Spotify Service such as 'Social' or 'Explicit Content'. On the 'Social' setting, you can:
- start a Private session
- choose whether to share what you listen to on Spotify with your followers
- choose whether to show your recently played artists on your public profile
On the 'Explicit Content' setting you can control whether explicit-rated content can be played on your Spotify account.
2. Your personal data rights and controls
Many privacy laws give rights to individuals over their personal data. These laws include the General Data Protection Regulation, or 'GDPR'. Accordingly we are happy to offer transparency and access controls to help users take advantage of those rights. As available, and except as limited under applicable law, please see your rights and their descriptions in this table:
| It’s your right to... | How? | |
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Be informed
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Be informed of the personal data we process about you and how we process it.
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We inform you:
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Access
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Request access to the personal data we process about you.
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To request a copy of your personal data from Spotify, either:
When you download your data you will receive the information about your data that Spotify has to provide under Article 15 of the GDPR and other applicable laws. If you would like more information about how we process your personal data, you can contact us.
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Rectification
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Request that we amend or update your personal data where it’s inaccurate or incomplete.
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You can edit your User Data under ‘Edit profile’ in your account or by contacting us.
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Erasure
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Request that we erase certain of your personal data.
For example, you can ask us to erase personal data:
There are situations where Spotify is unable to delete your data, for example when:
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There are several ways you can erase personal data from Spotify:
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Restriction
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Request that we stop processing all or some of your personal data.
You can do this if:
You can request that we stop this processing temporarily or permanently.
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By contacting us.
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Object
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Object to us processing your personal data.
You can choose to switch off or adjust some features which process your personal data.
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To exercise your right to object you can:
use controls on Spotify Service to switch off or adjust some features which process your personal data.
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Data portability
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Request a copy of your personal data in electronic format and the right to transmit that personal data for use in another party’s service.
You can request us to transmit your data when we are processing your personal data on the legal basis of consent or performance of contract. However, Spotify will try to honour any request to the extent possible.
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For information about how to exercise the right to portability, see ‘Access’ above.
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Not be subject to automated decision making
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Not be subject to a decision based solely on automated decision making (decisions without human involvement), including profiling, where the decision would have a legal effect on you or produce a similarly significant effect.
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Spotify does not carry out this type of automated decision making in the Spotify Service.
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Withdrawal of consent
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Withdraw your consent to us collecting or using your personal data.
You can do this if Spotify is processing your personal data on the legal basis of consent.
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To withdraw your consent, you can:
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Right to lodge a complaint
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Contact the Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection or your local data protection authority about any questions or concerns.
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You can find the Swedish Authority’s details here. You can also go to the website of your local data protection authority.
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A legal representative may request at any time to view, correct/delete, suspend the processing of, and withdraw consent to personal data. In this case, a legal representative has to contact us by using the contact information above.
3. Personal data we collect about you
These tables set out the categories of personal data we collect from you.
| Collected when you sign up for the Spotify Service or when you update your account | ||
|---|---|---|
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Category
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Description
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Period of Retention
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User Data
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Personal data that we need to create your Spotify account and that enables you to use the Spotify Service.
The type of data collected and used depends on the type of Service Option you have. It also depends on how you create your account, the country you are in, and if you use third party services to sign in. This may include your:
We receive some of this data from you e.g. from the sign up form or account page.
We also collect some of this data from your device e.g. country or region. For more information about how we collect and use this data, see ‘Your general (non-precise) location’ in the Usage Data category.
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Your personal data will be retained until you close your account or the purpose of collecting and using your personal data is achieved; provided, however, that the retention period is subject to the relevant laws.
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Street Address Data
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We may ask for and process your street address for the following reasons:
In some cases, we may use a third party application to help you verify your address, such as Google Maps.
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| Collected through your use of the Spotify Service | ||
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Categories
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Description
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Period of Retention
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Usage Data
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Personal data collected and processed about you when you’re accessing or using the Spotify Service.
There are a few types of information this includes, listed in the following sections.
Information about how you use Spotify
Examples include:
Your technical data
Examples include:
Your general (non-precise) location
Your general location includes country, region or state. We may learn this from technical data (e.g. your IP address, language setting of your device) or payment currency.
We need this to:
Your device sensor data
Motion-generated or orientation-generated device sensor data if needed to provide features of the Spotify Service that require this data. This is data which your device collects about the way you
move or hold your device.
Cookies
To provide personalised services Spotify uses ‘cookies’ to store and process your data. A cookie is a small file which the http server for the operation of a website or application sends to the user's device browser, and may be saved to their device.
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Your personal data will be retained until you close your account or the purpose of collecting and using your personal data is achieved; provided, however, that the retention period is subject to the relevant laws.
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| Additional data you may choose to give us | ||
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Categories
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Description
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Period of Retention
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Voice Data
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If voice features are available in your market and where you’ve chosen to use a voice feature, we collect and process voice data. Voice data means audio recordings of your voice and transcripts of those recordings.
For more information on how different voice features work, and how you can control and turn them off, see our Voice Control Policy.
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Your personal data will be retained until you close your account or the purpose of collecting and using your personal data is achieved; provided, however, that the retention period is subject to the relevant laws.
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Payment and Purchase Data
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If you make any purchases from Spotify or sign up for a paid service option or a trial, we will need to process your payment data.
The exact personal data collected and used will vary depending on the payment method. It will include information such as:
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Survey and Research Data
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When you respond to a survey or take part in user research, we collect and use the personal data you provide.
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We receive some of the data mentioned above from third parties. We may inform the data subject of the personal information, pursuant to the applicable laws, that we receive from a third party of the following: (i) the sources from which the personal data are collected; (ii) the purpose of processing personal data; and (iii) the data subjects' right to request for suspension of processing their personal data to the extent required by the applicable laws. The below table describes the categories of those third parties.
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Third party sources that we receive your data from
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Categories of third parties
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Description
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Data categories
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Period of Retention
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Authentication partners
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If you register for or log into the Spotify Service using another service, that service will send your information to us. This information helps create your account with us.
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User Data
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Your personal data will be retained until you close your account or the purpose of collecting and using your personal data is achieved; provided, however, that the retention period is subject to the relevant laws.
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Third party applications, services and devices you connect to your Spotify account
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If you connect your Spotify account to a third party application, service or device, we may collect and use information from them. This collection is to make the integration possible.
These third party apps, services or devices may include:
We’ll ask your permission before we collect your information from certain third parties.
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User Data
Usage Data
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Technical service partners
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We work with technical service partners that give us certain data. This includes mapping IP addresses to non-precise location data (e.g., country or region, city, state).
This makes it possible for Spotify to provide the Spotify Service, content, and features.
We also work with security service providers who help us protect user accounts.
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User Data
Usage Data
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Payment partners and Merchants
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If you choose to pay through third parties (e.g. telco carriers) or by invoice, we may get data from our payment partners.
This allows us to:
If we direct you to a merchant, we receive data from the merchant that is related to your purchase. For example, we might direct you to an artist’s merchandise store on a third party platform or to a third party ticketing website.
Receiving this data allows us to:
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Payment and Purchase Data
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Advertising and marketing partners
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We receive inferences from certain advertising or marketing partners. These inferences are the partners’ understanding of your interests and preferences.
This allows us to deliver more relevant ads and marketing.
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Usage Data
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Acquired companies
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We may receive data about you from companies we acquire. This is to enhance our services, products, and offerings.
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User Data
Usage Data
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If you download the Spotify mobile app and try Spotify using a logged out user experience, we will collect limited information about your usage of the Spotify Service, including Usage Data. We do this to understand how you are accessing and using the Service. We also do this to ensure we provide the right experience for you, for example based on your country or region. If you decide to create a Spotify account to experience our service in full, then we will combine this data with your Spotify account data.
4. Our purpose for using your personal data
The table below sets out:
- our purpose for processing your personal data
- our legal justifications (each called a 'legal basis') under data protection law, for each purpose
- categories of personal data which we use for each purpose. See more about these categories in Section 3 'Personal data we collect about you'
Here is a general explanation of each 'legal basis' to help you understand the table:
- Consent: When Spotify asks you to actively indicate your agreement to Spotify's use of your personal data for a certain purpose.
- Compliance with Legal Obligations: When Spotify must process your personal data to comply with a law.
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Purpose for processing your data
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Legal basis that permits the purpose
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Categories of personal data used for the purpose
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To provide the Spotify Service. For example, when we use your personal data to:
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To diagnose, troubleshoot, and fix issues with the Spotify Service.
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For marketing, promotion or advertising purposes
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To comply with a legal obligation and law enforcement requests that we are subject to. For example, when we use your date of birth when required for age verification purposes.
This might be:
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To fulfil contractual obligations with third parties. For example, when we provide pseudonymised data about our users’ listening because we have an agreement with owners of content on a Spotify rightsholder to do so.
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To take appropriate action with reports of intellectual property infringement and inappropriate content.
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To establish, exercise, or defend legal claims. For example, if we are involved in litigation and we need to provide
information to our lawyers in relation to
that legal case.
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To conduct business planning, reporting, and forecasting. For example, when we look at aggregated user data like the number of new sign ups in a country in order to plan new locations to launch our products and features in.
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To process your payment. For example, when we use your personal data to let you purchase a Spotify subscription.
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To keep the Spotify Service secure and to detect and prevent fraud. For example, when we analyse Usage Data to check for fraudulent use of the Spotify Service.
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To conduct research and surveys. For example, when we contact our users to ask for your feedback.
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5. Sharing/providing your personal data
This section sets out who receives personal data which is collected or generated through your use of the Spotify Service.
Publicly available information
The following personal data will always be publicly available on the Spotify Service, (except to any user you have blocked):
- your profile name
- your profile photo
- your public playlists
- other content you post on the Spotify Service, and any associated titles, descriptions and images
- who you follow on the Spotify Service
- who follows you on the Spotify Service (you can block followers)
You or another user can share certain information on third party services, like social media or messaging platforms. This includes:
- your profile
- any content you post on Spotify and details about that content
- your public playlists
When this sharing occurs, the third party service may store a copy of it to support their features.
Spotify Connect
After you have created a Spotify account you may choose to connect it to a compatible device over wi-fi. You may choose to connect Spotify via wi-fi to an integrated device such as a speaker, tv, a car, or even a fridge. This is called Spotify 'Connect'. You may choose to 'Connect' to other devices, and may share your data by doing so.
Personal data you may choose to share / provide to a third party
We will only share the following personal data with those outlined in the table below:
- where you have chosen to use a Spotify Service feature, or a third party application, service or device, and we need to share personal data to enable this, or
- if you otherwise grant us your permission to share the personal data. For example, you can do it by selecting the appropriate setting in the Spotify Service or by giving your consent
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Categories of recipients
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Reason for sharing
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The period of use and retention of the data by the third party
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The items of personal data to be provided to the third party
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|---|---|---|---|
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Third party applications, services and devices you connect to your Spotify Account
You can review a list of the Third Party apps you have granted access to your Spotify account (if any) here.
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To connect your Spotify account to third party services which may request or require that we share information about you with them, pursuant to your choice.
Examples of such third party applications, services and devices include: social media applications, speaker devices, televisions, automotive platforms, or voice assistants, which interact with the Spotify Service.
You can see and remove many third party connections under ‘Apps’ in your account.
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We will only share your data where you choose to connect your Spotify account to a third party application or device. Your consent will always be requested before we provide your information to such third parties.
Third Parties use and retain the data until the purposes of the use have been achieved (or until cancellation/termination of subscription by the user).
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You will be informed about which User Data and Usage Data the third party will receive at the point where you choose to connect your account. It may differ slightly depending on the third party application, but may include: information about what you are currently playing and your connected devices, email address, username, information about your playlists or library, information about your subscription details, artists you follow, your followers, recently played and top tracks. For more information about how these third party applications and devices will handle your data, such as whether they will transfer it overseas or for how long they will retain it, please see the privacy policy of the application or device you are choosing to connect with.
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The following record label partners:
Warner Music Inc.
Warner Music Inc. and WEA International Inc. 1633 Broadway, New York, New York 10019
Warner Music International Services Ltd.27 Wrights LaneLondon, England W8 5SW
UMG Recordings Services Inc.2220 Colorado Avenue, Santa Monica, California, 90404-4506, USA
Universal International Music, B.V.Gravelandseweg 80 NL – 1217 EW Hilversum, The Netherlands
Sony Music Entertainment25 Madison AvenueNew York, NY 10010
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To receive news or promotional offers directly from artists, record labels or other partners.
You may choose to share personal data (for example, your email address) for this purpose. You’ll always have the option to change your mind and withdraw your consent at any time.
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Only if you choose to share your account registration data with the record labels, we will share your data when you sign up for Spotify via transmission over the network at the time of service.You will always have the option to change your mind and withdraw your consent at any time in your account settings. Third Parties use and retain the data until the purposes of the use have been achieved (or until cancellation/termination of subscription by the user).
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Account registration data
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Information we may share
See this table for details of who we share to and why.
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Categories of recipients
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Reason for sharing
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Spotify service providers listed at this link
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We work with service providers that work on our behalf which may need access to certain personal data in order to provide their services to us. We have listed the work performed by each service provider at this link. Please see Section 7 ‘Transfer to other countries & entrustment' of this policy for more information about these service providers.
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Other Spotify group companies
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Our group companies may process your data on our behalf. We have listed the work performed by the Spotify group companies at this link. Please see Section 7 'Transfer to other countries & entrustment' of this policy for more information about these service providers.
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Spotify partners
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Depending on how you sign up for the Spotify Service (e.g. through a bundle deal with a mobile telecoms provider), we share your Spotify username or other User Data as necessary to enable your account. We may also share personal data with that third party about your use of the Spotify Service, such as whether and to what extent you have used the offer, activated a Spotify account, or actively used the Spotify Service.
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6. Data retention (procedure for and method of deleting personal data)
It's your right to request that we delete certain of your personal data. See the section on 'Erasure' in Section 2 'Your personal data rights and controls' for more information. If you close or request that we close your account, we'll delete or anonymise your personal data so it no longer identifies you, unless we're required to keep something or we still need to use it for a legally justifiable reason.
Your personal data will be retained until you close your account or the purpose of collecting and using your personal data is achieved; provided, however, that the retention period is subject to the relevant laws. Here are some examples of situations where we're legally allowed or required to keep some of your personal data (in such cases, we will transfer the relevant data to a separate database or storage place):
- if there's an unresolved issue relating to your account, such as an outstanding credit or unresolved claim or dispute
- for our user safety, legal, tax, audit and accounting obligations
- where necessary for our legitimate business interests such as fraud prevention or to maintain security.
The process and method of destruction are as follows
(1) Destruction process
Once the purpose is achieved, user's personal data is moved to a separate database and is destroyed after storage for a certain period depending on data protection reasons under our internal policy and other applicable laws and regulations
(2) Destruction method
We delete personal data stored in the form of electronic files by using technical means which makes it impossible to restore the data. We destroy your personal data through de-identification so that the individuals cannot be identified.
7. Transfer to other countries & entrustment
When carrying out the activities described in this Policy, Spotify shares your personal data internationally with Spotify group companies, subcontractors and partners. They may process your data in South Korea and outside of it. Your personal data, therefore, may be subject to privacy laws that are different from those in your country.
In such instances Spotify shall ensure that the transfer of your personal data is carried out in accordance with applicable privacy laws and, in particular, that appropriate contractual, technical, and organisational measures are in place in order to protect your data including by way of restricting re-entrustment, and managing and overseeing the entrusted processors. You can find out more about where your data is processed at this link.
Information on provision of your personal data is set out under Section 5 above.
8. Keeping your personal data safe
We're committed to protecting our users' personal data. We put in place appropriate technical and organisational measures to help protect the security of your personal data. However, be aware that no system is ever completely secure.
We have put various safeguards in place to guard against unauthorised access and unnecessary retention of personal data in our systems. These include pseudonymisation, encryption, access, and retention policies.
To protect your user account, we encourage you to:
- use a strong password which you only use for your Spotify account
- never share your password with anyone
- limit access to your computer and browser
- log out once you have finished using the Spotify Service on a shared device
- read more detail on protecting your account
You can log out of Spotify in multiple places at once by using the 'Sign out everywhere' function on your account page.
If other individuals have access to your Spotify account, then they can access personal data, controls and the Spotify Service available in your account. For example, you might have allowed someone to use your account on a shared device.
It's your responsibility to only allow individuals to use your account where you're comfortable sharing this personal data with them. Anyone else's use of your Spotify account may impact your personalised recommendations and be included in your data download.
9. Children
Note: This Policy doesn't apply to Spotify Kids unless the Spotify Kids Privacy Policy says so. Spotify Kids is a separate Spotify application.
The Spotify Service has a minimum 'Age Limit' in each country or region. The Spotify Service is not directed to children whose age:
- is under the age of 14 years, or
- makes it illegal to process their personal data, or
- requires parental consent to process their personal data
We do not knowingly collect or use personal data from children under the applicable Age Limit. If you're under the Age Limit, do not use the Spotify Service, and do not provide any personal data to us. Instead, we recommend using a Spotify Kids account.
If you're a parent of a child under the Age Limit and become aware that your child has provided personal data to Spotify, please contact us.
If we learn that we've collected the personal data of a child under the applicable Age Limit, we'll take reasonable steps to delete the personal data. This may require us to delete the Spotify account for that child.
When using a shared device on the main Spotify Service, be cautious about playing or recommending any inappropriate content to individuals under 18 years old.
10. Changes 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.
11. How to contact us
For any questions or concerns about this Policy, contact our Data Protection Officer any one of these ways:
- email privacy@spotify.com
- write to us at: Office of the Data Protection Officer, Spotify AB, Regeringsgatan 19, 111 53 Stockholm, Sweden
Spotify AB is the data controller of personal data processed under this Policy.
For users in South Korea, Spotify's Korean Domestic Representative is as follows:
Name and Representative: DR & AJU LLC, Kyu Chul Lee
Telephone: +82 2 3016 8733
Email: privacyspotify@draju.com
Address: 7-16th floor, Donghoon Tower, 317 Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea 06151
For general customer service queries not related to personal data processing, please contact our Customer Service.
© Spotify AB
See previous versions of this policy published