It has now become a routine at the end of each year: sharing your music or gaming compilation on social networks. This information, sometimes very precise, becomes public and the applications use our data to create these rankings.
In this month of December, opening a story on Instagram is one more chance to come across a friend’s best of Spotify. And to discover that this year, he has listened to particularly sad songs or that he has hazardous musical tastes. Music, video games or even top of the words used in our messages, the annual retrospectives created by the applications are a goldmine of our data which, once shared, becomes public.
• Music classification
Starting with Spotify compilations, very widely shared on social networks. The platform presents a personalized ranking of the user’s musical year: the most listened to music, the number of hours, the new groups discovered… And these very precise results do not come out of nowhere. The data collection is modeled on that used throughout the year for the proposal of personalized playlists.
To create these playlists, Spotify tracks the music played in real time, knows how long it is listened to, if the user pauses or skips to another song. Spotify organizes all this information into certain categories and uses them to choose the music offered. A study by the Bank of England found that Spotify data can guess the mood of users.
Vertical, minimalist and colorful format, Spotify has designed the format of its retrospective so that it can be easily shared on social networks. A playful and amusing format but which is just as clever for the user to advertise for free by publicly sharing his music, which is ultimately akin to a summary of personal data. Admittedly, music or podcasts are not a date of birth or a credit card code, but what we listen to says a lot about our lives and our habits.
The French platform Deezer also offers a retrospective of the year. And it turns out to be very precise: top 5 of the most listened to music, new discoveries, the number of songs listened to, the number of minutes and hours listened to or even the top 5 artists. At the end of the retrospective, Deezer encourages users to share the ranking on social networks thanks to visuals that are also very “instagramable”.
To recommend playlists, Deezer specify the data on which it is based: name, age, gender User ID, device ID, approximate location, interactions with the product, photos and history.
For the first time this year, Apple Music is also offering a replay to its subscribers.
• Best-of messages
More original but also more personal, Théo Delemazure goes further. This doctoral student in mathematics has created a site that allows us to make a best of our Messenger conversations. His site Chats Wrap compiles our uploaded Facebook data to create charts. The user can thus have a retrospective of his messages. The site allows you to view the number of messages sent, received, the number of conversations, photos, the time at which the user sends the most messages, a top of the most used words, favorite emojis or personality. . “The goal was to present playful graphics with fun data,” explains Théo Delemazure to Tech&Co.
Already in 2021, Theo had developed this site, above all for his friends and had even developed a quiz application on the same model. The creator of artificial intelligence “it’s left or right” has gained visibility for a few months on social networks, so he decided to share his site this year. For him it is “a way of reclaiming his data”.
Building the site was not very complicated, it just used Javascript code. To view your best-of Messenger, you must download your Facebook data before uploading it to the site. Which is not an easy task because it can take several hours. With regard to data security, Théo ensures that these are not stored: “the site does not use a server, it can be used without an internet connection once the site is open”, he explains. -he.
• Retrospective video games
On the video game side, there are also many retrospectives. From December 13 to January 13 Playstation offers the Wrap-Up to its users. By logging into his account, the player discovers the number of hours spent on his PS4 or PS5 console. The list is divided into four sections: comparisons with the previous year, number of days played, top 5 most played titles and trophies won.
Regarding the data, the player authorizes Sony to consult the data stored on the console to aggregate them. The only constraint is that you must be over 18 years old. On the login page, Sony specifies that “users who declined to submit their ‘full data’ through their PlayStation 5’s system settings in 2022 will not be able to participate in highlights”, i.e. the Wrap -Up.
Nintendo offers a similar service for the Switch. By logging into his account, the player can view the number of games played, the hours spent on each title, and gaming habits. All compiled between January 1 and November 30. Nintendo states on its sign-in page that “the data displayed on this page is based on your gaming activity, obtained by Nintendo in accordance with the Nintendo Account Agreement and the Nintendo Account Privacy Policy.”
Last in the list, Replay 2022 of the Steam gaming platform. The retrospective is quite complete, it gives access to the most played games, the total playing time, the number of achievements unlocked and the player’s profile (if he is more into new games or more classic games ).
• Books and movies
Another more literary classification this time, but which says a lot about our tastes and habits: book or cinema applications. The ClassBook application allows you to view statistics throughout the year. The number of books read, the number of pages and even the estimated value as well as a top 5 of authors and genres. Like the musical retrospectives, the Goodreads application offers a summary at the end of the year: number of books and pages read.
Same thing on the cinema side, the TV Time application offers detailed statistics. Throughout the year the user enters his statistics which gives a fairly complete compilation: episodes seen, time spent watching series or films, number of programs added or total episodes left to watch.
Streaming platforms like Netflix or Amazon Prime Video have not yet developed their annual retrospective. Something to give them some ideas.
