Spotify has said that it has “no evidence” that it ever accessed Facebook users’ private messages.
The streaming company has issued a statement in response to an explosive New York Times report about data sharing agreements between Facebook and other firms (more than 150 in total), including Spotify, Netflix, Apple and Amazon.
According to the NYT story, written by Gabriel J.X. Dance, Michael LaForgia, and Nicholas Confessore, “Facebook gave some of the world’s largest technology companies more intrusive access to users’ personal data than it has disclosed”.
The paper adds that it’s obtained internal Facebook documents detailing the data sharing deals.
States the NYT times report: “The records, generated in 2017 by the company’s internal system for tracking partnerships, provide the most complete picture yet of the social network’s data-sharing practices.
“They also underscore how personal data has become the most prized commodity of the digital age, traded on a vast scale by some of the most powerful companies in Silicon Valley and beyond.”
Music on Spotify can be shared via Facebook Messenger and the story alleges that Facebook allowed the streaming company “to read, write and delete users’ private messages, and to see all participants on a thread”.
That’s not the case, insists Spotify, which says that it’s not able to read private messages on Facebook across any of its “current integrations”.
“Spotify cannot read users’ private Facebook inbox messages across any of our current integrations.”
Spotify
“Spotify’s integration with Facebook has always been about sharing and discovering music and podcasts,” said Spotify in a statement issued today (December 19).
“Spotify cannot read users’ private Facebook inbox messages across any of our current integrations.
“Previously, when users shared music from Spotify, they could add on text that was visible to Spotify. This has since been discontinued.
“We have no evidence that Spotify ever accessed users’ private Facebook messages.”Music Business Worldwide
