Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

Re:Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds a... by stale2002 on Friday February 08, 2019 @02:41PM (#19117917)

It is within someone's full legal right to use an ad blocker.

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Re:Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds a... by Wowfunhappy on Friday February 08, 2019 @02:51PM (#19118001)

Yep! Just like it's within Spotify's full legal right to ban you for using an ad-blocker.

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Re:Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds a... by leothecool on Friday February 08, 2019 @04:42PM (#19118965)

Sure, but can they legally spy on me or search my computer to try and figure out if I am blocking ads?

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Re:Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds a... by themacguffinman on Friday February 08, 2019 @05:37PM (#19119358)

They don't have to search your computer to figure that out in most adblocking implementations. If you're blocking the ad's network request but listening to the music, they can detect that server-side. If you're muting your volume while the ad is playing, they can detect that in the client with simple volume APIs.

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Re:Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds a... by stale2002 on Friday February 08, 2019 @03:30PM (#19118337)

You know people can just create another account, right?

Also, they can do other things, such as starting a consumer revolt against Spotify, and by giving them bad publicity, that may cause paying users to remember about their unused account and cancel it.

Bad publicity costs companies a lot of money.

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Re:Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds a... by brewdad on Friday February 08, 2019 @05:59PM (#19119484)

I don't know about other users, but I'm not canceling my Spotify account to stand in solidarity with the freeloaders. Ad blocking users are a net negative to Spotify, why shouldn't they ban them?

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Re:Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds a... by jodrellblank on Saturday February 09, 2019 @12:28AM (#19120947)

Ad blocking users are a net negative to Spotify, why shouldn't they ban them?

It's not unthinkable that ad blocking users are keeping money and attention away from Spotify's competitors, spreading enthusiasm about Spotify to more people who will become paying customers, and giving Spotify more ears and more user information to inform their decisions.

Ad blocking users cost, but only as much as a low-bitrate audio stream - and that should get cheaper every year. At some point, will it cross so they're not net-negatives?

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