How to stop Spotify from embarrassing you on Facebook

Because of Facebook's new partnerships with various music services, your friends are now able to see which songs you are listening to at any given point in time. Yes, that means they'll now know that you're lying when you claim that you've never heard a single Justin Bieber song.

Thankfully at least one of the Facebook-connected services is offering a way to prevent embarrassment.

Popular music streaming service Spotify has just updated its desktop app to offer a "Private Listening" option. Now all you have to do when you want to keep your music choices to yourself is open the "File" menu and click on "Private Listening." This will prevent people from knowing what's blaring through your headphones— until the next time you log in.

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Read those last few words again — this only keeps your music choices private until the next time you log into Spotify. If you want to permanently stop people from seeing what you listen to, you'll have to hit the "Disconnect from Facebook" button instead.

For Subscribers

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAbdul El-Sayed tries to woo MAHA voters as Democrats seek inroads with RFK’s supporters

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKratom-like substances are popping up in a typically benign supplement

FOR SUBSCRIBERSGOP super PAC increases its spending for Sen. Jon Husted in tough Ohio race

FOR SUBSCRIBERSRecords reveal tumultuous marriage between slain New York Times executive and wife

FOR SUBSCRIBERSFrom clean energy warrior to ‘wall of shame,’ James Talarico reverses on a fossil fuel money pledge

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCongressional staff planned official trip with luxury stops in Italy and France weeks before election

FOR SUBSCRIBERSA harrowing ordeal aboard an Israel-bound plane

FOR SUBSCRIBERSOpenAI CEO Sam Altman to skip congressional hearing on rogue AI agents

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKey DOJ lawyers departed Trump ‘grand conspiracy’ probe amid pressure to produce, source says

FOR SUBSCRIBERSTrump’s new AI chatbot often links to a site launched under Clinton 26 years ago

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAt MAHA summit, industry CEOs the movement once vilified take the stage

FOR SUBSCRIBERSThis Paralympian has two goals: Win medals and give away $500,000 to her teammates

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCornell rape allegation spotlights stringent New York state laws that have long drawn criticism

FOR SUBSCRIBERSThe debate over AI’s future rages on both coasts

FOR SUBSCRIBERSDecades-old march dispute reignites in Northern Ireland, threatening political crisis

Note that if you're not seeing the "Private Listening" option in Spotify's "File" menu, you might need to look for a prompt offering to update the app. It like this:

Related stories:

• Facebook shows off new Timeline profiles, apps and more
• No Facebook account? No Spotify!
• What makes Spotify such a great music service?

Want more tech news, silly puns, or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.