As the internet advances, we need to take best practices to keep our personal accounts free of malicious actions from other people. For Spotify, this wouldn't be any different. Spotify has become our personal library for our favorite songs, podcast shows, and now, our audiobooks. I don't know if you feel the same, but my Spotify is so important to me that I want it to keep as secure as possible - after all, we don't make a big Liked Songs playlist in a blink of an eye, do we?
Here we go with a few steps to help you on maintaining your account even more securely. So, no more words, let's go! (FYI: That's why the name of this blog is Steps by Stars! But I bet you realized that...)
Step 1: Use a secure password
I know you probably are thinking "Really? This is your Stars' super tip?", but trust me, in the 21st century, some people still use simple passwords on their accounts thinking it's an "amazing-super-strong" password, but it isn't. To create a truly safe password:
- Opt for passwords with at least 8 characters, including letters, capitals, numbers, and special characters. The longer and more complex your password, the more difficult it is to be broken;
- Use a different password for each online service or website;
- It would be great if you change your password frequently;
- And of course, never share your password with anyone. Not even your pet. Ok, ok, we can trust our pets. But if it's a parrot, maybe it will repeat the password all the time, so take consideration...
- Bonus tip: You can use a password vault to keep your passwords safe, so you don't need to remember the password. This allows you to create big passwords with a bunch of different characters, but choose a trustable vault.
Step 2: Device Security
It's not worth having a super password if your device is unsecured. So keep your device’s firmware, operating system, and/or anti-virus software up-to-date for general online security. You can check out the support site of your device's brand for more information about how to keep it safe.
Step 3: Manage 3rd party services/apps
As you may know, your Spotify account can be linked to 3rd party services, like Alexa or Google. It is worth managing these apps regularly to keep only the essential apps you really trust linked to your account. Avoid linking your account with apps from sources you don't really trust. Linked apps may have access to your listening activity, for example, and maybe you don't want anyone else to know you're listening to sad songs while you're thinking about your ex-partner. (We're just kidding about the ex part...)
Step 4: Take care when logging onto public devices
Whether you’re at work, school, the library, or using a device that isn’t your own, remember to log out after using Spotify to prevent others from gaining access to your account. And if necessary, you can remotely sign out of all devices here, but this doesn't include partner devices (e.g. speakers, game consoles, and TVs).
Step 5: Is this Spotify email legit?
Spotify will never ask for personal information over email, such as:
- Payment info
- Password
- Social Security or tax identification number
- Request payments via a 3rd party (for example: Western Union)
- Ask you to download anything from our emails
Spotify only sends emails regarding account activity, like new logins, new members added to your Duo or Family plans, or issues with your payment method. This is only to inform you, not to ask for information. An email is suspicious if the sender's email doesn’t end in “@spotify.com”, or if you’re simply not sure about it. In this case, don't interact, respond or click on any link in the email. You can also, report it to the Spotify team, by forwarding the email to spoof@spotify.com
Bonus Step: Spotify and your personal data
Your privacy and the security of your personal data are really important and you should be in control of it. With this in mind, Spotify created a Privacy Center to highlight some of the important sections of its Privacy Policy and to let you know more about the rights and controls you have in relation to your personal data. You can find more information about your data rights and privacy settings here.
There are a bunch of things we can do to keep our account and our data safe and the steps we brought here are truly important. We hope this edition of the Steps by Stars was useful and very informative to you. And don't forget, my friend, if you need help, a Spotify Star is here in the community ready to lend you a hand.
We'll be back soon for more Steps by Stars. See you there!
Spotify Stars Program
