How Apps Like Spotify Is Infiltrating Our Data

I think what most of us don't know is that Spotify tracks our data and how much we use other sites. We often forget about how the "cookie settings" under Spotify can allow them to see our every move.

Spotify has its perks but also its own share of pitfalls. Because it is an app, there are so many things a person can do with it and while on it. For example, Spotify always updates its features to allow more comfort and convenience for the people using it.

When I think of Spotify, I think of a GPS device. I compare Spotify to a GPS, because like a GPS device, Spotify collects the data from them and uses it to maintain its app and functionality. I think of this more like Spotify putting a tracker device on our clothing, so that they can figure out our every move and where we are heading to.

• When: When a person opens an ad from Spotify

• An ad comes up on a person's phone and they open it
• The ad leads them to Spotify, where they will listen to their favorite music/artists
• Spotify shows them more, new playlists of their favorite artists
• The person keeps coming back for more

• For how long: For the intervals the playlists on Spotify is playing on the person's device

• Every time a person plays Spotify or has Spotify on their device, Spotify is able to gather more information about their tastes and preferences
• This will lead to more ads and Spotify knowing what to give out to the person, as far as playlists and favorite artists go

• How: Spotify "knows" what playlists and artists to give to the person

• Because Spotify is able to gather information about the person's favorite artists and tastes, they are able to have the person coming back for more
• Spotify may produce ads based on the person's tastes and what they are into
• Spotify's algorithms know how to encounter the people they are trying to have come back to listen for more.

Apps like Spotify has allowed us to do more things with convenience and for our leisure, but it has also allowed us to feel like we are being tracked in every move we make. We live in an era now where everything is dominated by technology and collected data that comes from us. It is hard not to feel like we are paranoid of everything happening, because everything does feel like the apps we are using are caving in us sometimes (if not all the time).

These apps have also taught us more about what it's like to live in a world where technology infiltrates our everyday lives, including the personal aspects of it. Large technology companies, including Google and Facebook are able to store every bit of information they can collect from us. It almost feels like we are being put under surveillance for the "wrong reasons" large social media and app companies bring out. They just want to get information from us, but they don't know that they are going way too far when they take personal information and data from us.