Panama Playlists: website Leakt Spotify favorites by celebrities and tech-CEOs

What music lists US Vice President JD Vance, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and Openai boss Sam Altman? A website called Panama PlaylistsAn allusion to the Panama Papers has compiled the Spotify habits of celebrities, journalists and politicians from the USA. On the one hand, the website offers an entertaining look at the music preferences of the rich and powerful (and journalists), but on the other hand raises questions about data protection at the Swedish music streaming service.

“I found the real Spotify accounts of celebrities, politicians and journalists,” says the website. “Many use their real names. With a little detective work I could almost certainly say: Yes, they are. We have been researching their accounts since summer 2024. Playlists, live hearing feeds, just everything. I know which songs they played when and how often.”

It should not have been clear to the listed people that outsiders had access to their private playlists at all. They also do not seem to have agreed to a publication. It is unclear who is behind the Panama Playlists.

“Best Music ever”

Several people whose music preferences were published in the Panama Playlists have confirmed the authenticity of the data. This includes tech entrepreneur Palmer Luckey, in whose playlist “Best Music Ever” is particularly represented by music from the early 2000s. He writes on X: “I can confirm that this playlist is real.”

The Technology magazine The Verge has confirmed the authenticity of the playlists by other people. The listed music was not always correct-a journalist wrote that the songs may have run during a peloton course. Several other people who contacted The Verge have confirmed the authenticity of the music data.

Playlists publicly public

Spotify playlists are divided publicly by default-if you don’t want to, Must switch off the share manually or put individual playlists privately. As soon as the creators of the Panama Playlists had found the spofity identity of a person, in many cases they were simply able to view and publish the public playlists. However, this does not explain all data published on the website. The data of some listed journalists include the exact number of song players-these are data that is not easily visible.

So far, Spotify has not commented on the Panama Playlists.