How to Block Spotify from Sharing Your Listening Habits

By Cynthia Herbert :: 3:46 AM

Spotify has been making headlines for its recent requirement that all users sign up via Facebook. If you do not have a Facebook account, there is no way to get a Spotify one now.

That decision doesn’t go over well with the more privacy-minded people, especially in light of recent changes to Facebook’s UI that stream all sorts of information, including the individual tracks that Spotify users are pumping through their headphones in real-time.

If you want to keep grooving to the tunes, but don’t feel like making your music selections public, there is a way to prevent Spotify from sharing your guilty Rick Astley obsession.

Here’s how you do it:

1. In Spotify, find and open “Preferences.”
2. Look for the Facebook section.
3. Uncheck the box marked “Get personal recommendations by sending music you play to Facebook’s Open Graph.”

There, now your secret is safe. But, if you want to share with some of your friends, you can do that, too – it’s just slightly more complicated:

1. Go to your privacy settings in Facebook
2. Find “Apps and websites.”

Now, you will see Spotify. Select “App activity privacy,” and you can choode how your listening history is shown on Facebook.