Rdio Offers Protected Accounts for Keeping Listening Habits Private
Like many of the music streaming services to launch over the last few years, Rdio was designed from the ground up with a major social component. The service not only allows users to tie into their social networks and share what they are listening to, it operates as a social network in and of itself allowing users to share out playlists with other users and follow others to see what music they are listening to. Unfortuantely, Rdio was set up in such a manner that there was little to no control over who could follow you and view what you were listening to on the service. Rdio has announced that they are taking the first of many steps to improve their privacy controls with the launch of Protected Accounts which will allow users to at least decide who can follow them and see their listening data. Protected Accounts probably will not be enough to lure in those who have shyed away from Rdio for being too open, but it a step in the right direction to provide users more control over the flow of their personal data.
Protected Accounts work like restricted accounts on Twitter: you have to approve every follower request, and only the users you explicitly allow can see your data on the service. There’s no granular control — anyone you approve can see all your listening data, playlists, and the like — but it does allow you to only share with people you choose, or even to keep your Rdio usage entirely private.