Shazam stops listening in the background on macOS after criticism

The macOS version of Shazam will receive an update that will cause the program to disable the microphone when users have indicated that it is desirable. Until now, Shazam has always had the mic on, even if ‘always listen’ is turned off.

A report from Motherboard revealed Monday that the Shazam application always leaves the microphone on, even when users tell it to be turned off, to prevent the app from having to listen to some audio before it can identify a song. This can lead to users being late to recognize a number, which would be a frustration that developers want to avoid. Shazam does nothing further with the audio, but only creates a ‘digital fingerprint’ that can be used for comparison in the online database.

According to a former hacker who worked for the NSA, while in this state the Shazam app would not invade the user’s privacy, it does pose a security risk. “Malware could infect the app and stealthily exploit microphone privacy to actually record the user’s audio,” the man told Motherboard.

Nevertheless, the developers now tell Cnet that they will update the app and that ‘off’ with the macOS app will soon mean ‘off’. “While we don’t see it as a significant risk, with this update we want to show that we pay attention and want people to feel good about using Shazam on their Mac,” said Fabio Santini, chief product officer at the company.

The update should be implemented within a few days. It seems that other versions of Shazam do not behave the same as the macOS version.

Image: Motherboard