As part of its pre-IPO SEC filing, music streaming service Pandora has revealed that it received a subpoena related to a federal grand-jury investigation of Android and iPhone apps. The filing also explained that Pandora was not a specific target of the investigation, which covers a wide of apps according to Bloomberg.
From the Pandora filing:
“We were served with a subpoena to produce documents in connection with a federal grand jury, which we believe was convened to investigate the information sharing processes of certain popular applications that run on the Apple and Android mobile platforms.”
Mobile apps like Pandora track user data like location in order to better target ads and monitor user behavior. And while the privacy practices of biggies like Google have come under regulatory scrutiny before, this is the first time I’ve heard about the government taking action against apps.
Pandora has $56.3 million in funding from Greylock and revenue last year was at $137.8 million with $1.76 million in net loss.
When asked for comment, a Pandora representative gave me this in an email, “Our registration statement contains the totality of public information about Pandora at this time.” I’ll update this post if I hear anything further.
Pandora Radio is an internet radio service, recommendation service, and the custodian of the Music Genome Project. Users enter a song or artist that they enjoy, and the service responds by playing selections that are musically similar. Users provide feedback on approval or disapproval of individual songs, which Pandora takes into account for future selections. While listening, users are offered the ability to buy the songs or albums at various online retailers. As part of the Music Genome Project, over...
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