Enjoying your music selections on Pandora? According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, get ready for targeted political ads based on your listening choices.
From the article “Pandora Knows if You Are a Republican”: “The company matches election results with subscribers’ musical preferences by ZIP Code. Then, it labels individual users based on their musical tastes and whether those artists are more frequently listened to in Democratic or Republican areas. Users don’t divulge their political affiliations when they sign up for Pandora.”
““Targeting users is basically the currency in data right now,” says Jack Krawczyk, Pandora’s director of product management.”
In summary, if you use the Pandora app, they track what you listen to and use that information for advertising revenue. The new twist is the angle of political advertising.
As if you needed another reason to be concerned about your privacy, after the NSA, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Skype, Microsoft, etc revelations!
Time for a switch back to good old purchased music playlists on your mp3 playing device or terrestrial music radio. Maybe you’ll even find some new bands out there like White Denim and get hooked on great new music being made every day while avoiding the prying technological eyes of companies who spy on you for profit!
Ethan with Steve and Austin of White Denim