I noticed these accounts are following a lot of ppl on Spotify including me nd it doesn’t seem like I’m the only one from looking on social media. Does anyone have an answer to this? Bots maybe, ppl spam following?

    • CubbyTustard@reddthat.com
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      1 year ago

      to elaborate, this is a old facebook trick. You get a friend request from some hot looking girl and you accept cuz you are horny and in your 20’s and it says they are actually already friends with your pal Dave! they even chat with you a little bit sometimes, very blandly and generically…

      but now they can see all of your friends, posts you have set to friends only, etc. It’s a wedge to bypass the host services privacy settings and nothing more. Those accounts can see things that google can’t see and there’s money in them there profiles. They use the fact that they are now friends with you AND Dave to more easily target people you both know and the botnet grows.

      • Fraylor@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Damn… I never even considered that being a thing but it makes so much sense hearing it.

  • xkforce@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    There are multiple copies of them too it seems because the ones that are following me have slightly different display names

    • Schaedelbach@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      The two (also slightly different names) I see on my Spotify have a “Viral songs on tiktok” playlist in their profile. So it’s probably a way to spread/spam songs around?

      • Moghul@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        What does it do? Do you like… see what they’re playing? You listen along or something?

        • sunbeam60@lemmy.one
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          1 year ago

          Not a lot. Yes you can see what they are playing and they use it to make recommendations for you.

          I think the primary motivator for Spotify is just data scraping. Everybody wants to know your circle of friends in order to advertise better towards you.

          • mifan@feddit.dk
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            1 year ago

            I don’t know if it’s still a feature but I used to get phone notifications every time a friend put a song on.

            I don’t recommend this.

            • ???@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              1 year ago

              But I remember we did it. “Okay, Brian, the record’s five. The record’s five… Okay ready? Go!”

        • TheLemming@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          For me, I follow several artists and it gives updates on when they uploaded a new album etc etc And I follow my siblings and could see what they’re listening to, live, if I activated the sidebar but I’m just here to listen to music

          • Moghul@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            That first part works without following personal accounts too. I don’t follow anyone but I get notified when the bands I listen to release new albums. Besides that, I use the release radar playlist.

  • ianovic69@feddit.uk
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    1 year ago

    My question with all this is why hasn’t everyone switched this off in the settings from the first moment they made an account?

    It’s no wonder we’ve become a commodity to the services we use, people just allow it to happen.

    • kambusha@feddit.ch
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      1 year ago

      Switched what off? I have my settings about as private as I can do, yet one of those accounts had followed me without me knowing. I blocked them now but I’m not sure what setting you’re referring to, in order to prevent some random bot from following you on Spotify?

  • Sylver@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    They would have to follow 44 people a day for 6 years straight to reach 98,000

  • AngryDemonoid@lemmy.lylapol.com
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    1 year ago

    One of them is following me, but with a bunch of extra spaces after the exclamation point.

    I don’t usually check my followers, but I happened to be in there a couple days ago. The only person following me then was my wife, so this bot/spam is relatively new.

    • BlueKittyMeow@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      Wtf me too - the Lucas one plus all the spaces. I never even really use Spotify. Creepy.

      Edit they are literally my only follower aside from one single friend I know irl.

  • 0xC4aE1e5@lemmy.zip
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    1 year ago

    Could possibly be OF bots. You reddit users, remember the bots that would follow you every week or so and had to disable following?

    • eezeebee@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      It doesn’t show how many they follow, but it’s probably in the millions