Spotify Panama Playlists expose the soundtrack of the elite (and the death of their privacy)

Turns out Spotify isn’t just a music streaming app anymore. It’s also a window into the music listening habits and private jam sessions of politicians, tech CEOs, journalists, that one guy you saw on cable news, and many others.

Thanks to a new website called Panama Playlists, anyone can now get a glimpse into what some very famous people are actually listening to on Spotify. From JD Vance cooking to Justin Bieber, to OpenAI’s Sam Altman grooving to The Weekend, this playlist leak may be fun to browse, but it should also have you worried for your privacy.

The creators of Panama Playlists say they’ve been quietly stalking public Spotify accounts since summer 2024. They scraped the listening history, public playlists, even what song someone played and when. They then matched playlists and user names to real-life identities, all because of Spotify’s questionable privacy rules. And in case you’re wondering why the site is called Panama Playlists, it’s a cheeky nod to the Panama Papers, which was a leak of thousands of offshore bank accounts.

What caused this?

By default, every playlist you make on Spotify is public, and so is your profile. If you want privacy, you have to dig through settings and toggle off the “Public playlists” option, which would prevent new playlists you make from being publicly visible. Sadly, if you’re hurrying to change this right now, know that it won’t affect your older playlists. You’ll need to manually lock down each playlist you created before changing the setting if you want to make it private.

Since many people signed up for Spotify with their Facebook accounts, their real names are also on the platform. This is how we ended up here, with the playlists and music choices of some of the most well-known people in the world exposed for everyone to see.

• US Vice President JD Vance reportedly rocks out to Justin Bieber’s “One Time” and the Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way” while cooking.
• Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis apparently blasts “Party in the USA.”
• Pam Bondi, United States Attorney General, appears to have Nelly’s “Hot in Herre” and Foreigner’s “Cold as Ice” on her playlist.
• White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is apparently a Cyndi Lauper fan.
• Then there’s OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, whose alleged account has Shazamed Missy Elliott’s “Get Ur Freak On,” along with tracks from Adele, Ed Sheeran, and Lorde.
• Palmer Luckey, designer of the Oculus Rift, confirmed that his “Best Music Ever” playlist (which includes Hilary Duff and Avril Lavigne) is real.
• Meta’s Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang apparently celebrated a big tech deal with The Lumineers’ “Stubborn Love.”

Should you care?

While the leaked playlists might be fun to browse, it’s probably horrifying for those affected. The Panama Playlists are a public data breach disguised as a guilty pleasure. They prove just how easy it is to look into someone’s digital life. Most people have no idea how exposed they are on apps like Spotify and others until a random website like this puts their data out there for everyone to see.

The lesson being — check your Spotify settings now. Because while JD Vance’s Bieber playlist may be embarrassing, your Twilight soundtrack binge might be the next target.