hi everyone how r u
i have a question and need some help
is it more private and secure to listen to music online from a website than a radio station? thank u take care
Of course it’s more private and secure to listen to music from your radio station.
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The main privacy threat from music is profiling your listening habits. If you don’t provide your legal name (often required when paying), it is much harder to identify you. If you don’t even log in, all the better.
So paying for Apple/Spotify/etc is the worst option. Using Spotify/Youtube with an anonymous (free) account is a better option.* And the best options are services that don’t require logging in, such as most radio stations.
*Youtube caveat
Youtube can be used without logging in, but they seem to track your preferences even without logging in.
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music streaming is one area where I keep a ‘good enough’ mindset on in regard to privacy. I don’t really care if someone tracks my listening activity because for me its only music and not my emails or search queries (which would make profiling SO much easier). If you are ok with losing some benefits radio stations are definitely the way to go, but if you love the convenience of music streaming i would honestly just sign up for a spotify account with fake data and pay with gift cards or something like privacy dot com so to not give them your card, i think thats the best middle ground
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thank u everyone but i have a follow up question
wouldnt a radio station know my exact location since my device is connecting to its siignal or radio tower would know my exact location since i am choosing to receive the radio signal? wouldnt it be the worst security/privacy practice then since they would know where i am?
I was actually referring to internet radio, but traditional radio is also a privacy respecting option.
Internet radio, like any internet connection, shares your public facing IP address. If that’s a concern just use a VPN. Browser based players could expose you to browser fingerprinting, but only if the radio site in question has implemented a fingerprint tracking system. The browser settings to resist fingerprinting that Privacy Guides recommends can mitigate this issue (if it’s even present). Some radio stations publish .pls or .m3u files which enable you to use a media player to listen to their streams. These bypass any browser fingerprinting, and only share your public facing IP (and listen/connection times).
My understanding is tuning in to traditional radio is totally passive. The radio signals are broadcast all around you and all over the place. Your radio simply uses an antenna to receive the signal in high quality.