There is a rumor going around that Last.fm has given the RIAA data about its users following the leak of a new U2 album. According to Richard Jones of Last.fm, this rumor is completely false.
The rumor evidently began with TechCrunch and a “tip they received.” In a post titled “Techcrunch Are Full of Shit,” Jones writes:
When you signup to Last.fm and scrobble what you listen to, you are trusting us with your listening data. We take this very seriously. The old-timers on Last.fm who’ve been with us since the early days can attest to this – we’ve always been very open and transparent about how your data is used. This hasn’t changed. We never share personally identifiable data such as email and IP addresses. The only type of data we make available to labels and artists, other than what you see on the site, is aggregate data of listeners and number of plays.
TechCrunch is no stranger to controversial coverage. A recent example would be its top 21 Twitter applications based on Compete data that mysteriously left off a number of apps that others felt should have been on there (not just our own Twellow). Last year there was an issue with an “ads in Twitter Streams” story and with rumors of PaidContent looking to sell, and with Digg shopping itself to Google and Microsoft.
According to Ars Technica, Last.fm and the RIAA itself have both confirmed that Last.fm did not turn over user data after U2’s album leak. Jones asks people that see any rumors to the contrary to refer those spreading them to this post. The post currently has over 1,500 diggs, so the rumor is well on its way to being squashed.
