Submitted 5 weeks ago by wabafee@lemmy.world to showerthoughts@lemmy.world
Spotify wrapped started this trend seems other apps are doing this now also. Seeing a summary of things you did with there app. Kind of gives you a hint how much other things are being tracked. Good chance there is data retention legal issues in there also.
Isn’t that just basic data they already kept track of?
A boring dystopia
Not really sure what you mean basic but if tracking someone’s clicks on certain button, or features and can be traced back to you. It’s actually kind of off putting so much for making your information anonymise which most companies claim. Or why even track those in the first place.
But for Spotify that are tracking how many times you played different songs for their wrapped. Not trying to defend them, but for a music service I’m pretty sure they need to track that kind of information regardless. Might as well tally it up and show your own data to you
But “wrapped” type things aren’t using button press telemetry. They’re using data that the user wants access to anyways, like their Spotify play history, or Duolingo lesson progress.
It doesn’t even make sense to anonymize that data because people want to see their play history, not what was popular last week.
I doubt it.
The kind of data used for “wrapped” type summaries are usually the kind of data that users want to be tracked because it powers features they want.
Like Spotify wrapped is based of Spotify play history, and being able to see your recently played songs is a feature people want.
Duolingo wrapped is based on lesson progress, and it has to track your progress else it doesn’t know what lesson you’re doing.
idk what other apps do this, it’s pretty rare for me, but afaict it’s all just normal stuff.
Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of privacy problems that apps try to fuck with, but I don’t think that yearly wrapped is likely to be one of them.
Yeah I don’t mind apps keeping track of how I’ve been using them. But if duolingo tells me where my friend got married and congratulates me on keeping my streak through that then we’re gonna have some concerns
Lucy does keep saying that she is always listening rather ominously
I use the journalling app Daylio, which has a wrapped feature. It’s all done locally, on device. Not every implementation of this feature is spying on you.
This app is pretty cool. Just saying this because it let me export my data when I wanted to stop using it. Which is not a common feature in proprietary software so hats off to the devs.
not a common feature in proprietary software
Just so you know, the GDPR mandates that you can at any time get a full export of all your personal data from anyone who’s processing it in a common, machine readable format. It is laudable though to have that integrated as a feature in the software, rather than jumping through hoops contacting support etc.
Antenna-Pod does it this way as well.
If it just uses data that is on your device right now, that is okay. But if it keeps track on things, even on your device, it can lead to security vulnerabilities, depending how it is stored how long it is kept.
And most importantly, enshittification and automatic updates could easily change that policy to retroactively hoover up all that precious data. This stuff is insanely valuable too.
Not saying daylio is doing it or going to. Just that keeping data comes with a risk. ideally, there should be clear documentation what is being kept, where and for how long.
You’re right, I should just refuse to trust any developers and go back to the paper journal I never used.
My to do list app had a wrapped and I was deeply displeased to see it.
Do tell
“You bought $300 worth of candles every month!”
Don’t remind me 😔
Use Fossify notes
It’s also a fun way to see how good their data is
For a few of the apps, the data was very limited and/or very wrong. That made me happy
The whole ‘wrapped’ summaries thing dovetails perfectly into social media narcissism. It’s quite a spectacle to witness.
I enjoy it for retro achievements because it said I spent 60 hours playing Dragon.Quest 8 for the PS2. But that’s probably because it’s all free.
And oddly enough it was the only wrapped I got as I don’t do subscription based stuff.
That actually requires very little data compared to the amount of data being collected. They collect absolutely everything all the time.
The only software that could do that for me was Steam; saying when I played which games how long, and if it appeared to be on a Steam Deck or not. It did not nearly track all the Deck data, it seems if the Deck has no Internet connection for long enough it kind of just discards data it held and it never gets synced to Steam. For my desktop it was accurate, but only the game time stats it already let me know it tracks.
Since nothing else could “wrap” my annual data I think I’m going fine.
I know Steam itself says it doesn’t track your playtime while you’re playing offline.
The only app I have that does such a thing does it because it’s deliberately gamified for your benefit and tracking/summarizing your achievements for that year. IMO any other kind of app doing that is a gigantic red flag and you ought to delete it and find a replacement in the F-Droid repository (which consists entirely of Free Software that is much less likely to contain those sorts of dark patterns and other antifeatures) instead.
Which apps do that? None of mind have suggested anything.
I’m aware of spotify, youtube, and to a lesser extent strava and duolingo.
I don’t use either one of them, but people have posted screenshots from all those on social media.
Yeah, I try not to install apps from major companies and use 3rd party when possible. O always just assume that those are tracking you even if they say they aren’t
RegalPotoo@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
It’s the opposite - most regulatory frameworks require that you only retain data if you have a “legitimate purpose” for holding on to it; providing app features absolutely is a legitimate purpose, so by having a “wrapped” you can justify holding on to everything a user does - after all, you need it to provide features.
rikudou@lemmings.world 4 weeks ago
Nope. Especially under GDPR. To use an example of Spotify - having a “wrapped” is not part of the core offering and is not necessary for the service to work. Meaning they need your permission to store that data (or other legal framework).
astanix@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
I love hearing about how protective the GDPR is and wish it was a worldwide initiative with the teeth to truly protect humanity from themselves.
lurklurk@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Music recommendations are part of the core offering though and keeping play history is pretty vital for that. There might be local ways to do it but probably not as good
wabafee@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
That’s interesting never thought of that.