Hide your user info from people without SMULE accounts and see who watches videos

[[Member Craz…]]

I was wondering if there was a way for users without registered SMULE accounts coul not access our accounts and  videos without us setting them to private? And if we could track who views our stuff (not just "loves") but in the same way if we wanted. 

I have someone who literally tracks my daily activities by computer using my Sing account. I have it registered under an alias and email unassociated with me and this is the only way this person has found to track me because Google and everything else tied to me won't work. It is scary that anyone can just go online and follow, or stalk people without having a way to track if you know it is happening. At the very least if people had to register for an account there could be tracking of who is watching where if something arises. If there is something already in place and I am missing it please let me know.

[[Member open…]]

10 hours ago, Crazyjster said:

If there is something already in place and I am missing it please let me know.

Nope. Nothing like this exists. Everything you publish on Smule is public. 

[[Member _Ram…]]

On 4/1/2019 at 9:20 AM, Crazyjster said:

I was wondering if there was a way for users without registered SMULE accounts coul not access our accounts and  videos without us setting them to private?

My understanding is that for any one to be able to listen to your Smule recordings they should have down loaded the Smule Application and registered with an email id and a contact phone number etc etc. They do not have to be a VIP member. For example I can just click on your profile picture now and go straight to your page and listen to all your recordings.

Now the question is if the stalker is bothering you and posting unsolicited comments etc. that is not to your liking ? . If "YES"  you can just go to your Smule settings and "BLOCK" this individual. Once you block them there is not much he our she can do to harass you or upset you. If they manage to get around this by registering using a different user name then you can complain to Smule and let the security experts at Smule help block this individual.

Hope this helps.

 

Ram

Sydney

 

[[Member Craz…]]

@_RamKrish1012 Type in your user name and you will see what I am talking about...(logged out of your account on a computer)...everything you have done including comments are publicly displayed...no log in necessary

So evidently there is no way...bummer!

Edited April 11, 2019 by Crazyjster

[[Member Brai…]]

As @opentype said , everything you upload as public is open to anonymous viewers. You can browse all the public OCs.

I believe smule is getting behind in its privacy policy. 

I understand this is not priority for smule as a business: When you set up a service like this, it is obvious that one of your better chances of growing and getting more clients is via social connections, so their incentives to implement privacy policies are negative.
But we subscribers, as paying users, should point smule that we request more privacy settings. 
It would be very easy to extend the privacy setting with two more options: let you share with either public, connected smulers, followed smulers, or private (link receivers).
Also, ability to hide your email from being found on the add users from your contact list would be a nice privacy feature.
I'm not asking for it as a default setting, but it really would be very easy to implement.

Maybe if they get several of this kind of requests, they consider implementing them.

[[Member SOTB…]]

On 4/11/2019 at 3:02 AM, Crazyjster said:

@_RamKrish1012 Type in your user name and you will see what I am talking about...(logged out of your account on a computer)...everything you have done including comments are publicly displayed...no log in necessary

So evidently there is no way...bummer!

ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS GOOGLE YOUR SMULE NAME OR ANYONE, BLOCKED OR NOT< AND YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING

 

[[Member Craz…]]

shouldn't be so easy

[Guest]

Hey, Crazy,

How do you know when someone is watching through a computer? I’ve always known it can be done, but is there a way to know when the perpetrators are doing it, and why would anyone want to do it? How did you find out someone was watching you? I think I probably have been watched in the past, but I hope I am not thinking too highly of myself.  I don’t mind anyone creeping if I have whatever on public, and they’re just wanting entertainment (not that I am that entertaining), but you have piqued my interest. Setting everything to private should remedy it, correct? Unless they’re a hacker, which is a whole other topic.  

Thank you! 😁

[[Member Brai…]]

Well, "pro" gossipers won't have any problem signing up in any web to entertaing their urges ... but a lot of regular gossipers wouldn't take the effort to sign up in a lesser known site as smule.

[[Member SOTB…]]

NICE ANSWER ABOVE THERE IS NO WAY GOOGLE YOUR SING NAME EVEN IF THEY ARE BLOCKED THEY CAN SEE ANYTHING THEY ALSO IF YOU HAVE THEM BLOCKED THEY CAN STILL SEE YOUR FAVORITES COMMENT AND LOVE. I HAVE GOTTEN DEATH THREATS THEY DID NOTHING I CONTACTED SFPD AND THE STATE ATTORNEYS OFFICE HEARD NOTHING FROM THEM

[[Member Craz…]]

Decfeb1910 I can do it from a PC just to show people how easy it is. You can sometimes tell in live jams because they spam you like crazy and troll the room. Often times you have connection problems as well. If you ban them they come back minutes later with new names. I usually admin or have admins with computers and we check out people now to verify who they are. It is actually sad.

[Guest]

Crazyjster,

I see now. I hate you’re experiencing so many problems with the jams, but I’m not going through that much trouble to verify everyone. I’ll use the privacy feature if it gets that bad. Hope it gets better.

 

[[Member Craz…]]

@PeacefulJoin I forgot...now with facebook watch party people watch you everywhere and can join/change user names every 2 minutes...some crazy stuff...it depends what I feel like doing...if I want to have fun and don't care I don't go through the trouble but if it is one of those nights where I am getting trolled...even when you private a room if someone has been there they can come back so I use security lol!

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Crazyjster said:

 

Oh my! I am not familiar with the Facebook watch party feature, and I am glad.  What a racket! You’re far more popular than I am on the app. I’ve been trolled in Jams, but not to the extent I have to set up a security team. 😂 Just wow! I am not making fun. It is sad, but it’s also almost comical people are so immature and so silly, especially if they’re adults. The privacy feature works for me, at least I hope. But I don’t do anything I care for the whole world to see. I’m sure you are the same, but it’s the invasion of privacy that would bother me. Best of luck! 

[[Member Craz…]]

I wouldn't call it "security teams" haha but just to keep kids and trolls/spammers out.  I come here to escape the public and be myself...I encourage others to have fun and do the same. It's karaoke. People should have a place to not have to worry about perceptions or judgement. That's just me. We are all here for different reasons. Other people can't get enough social media attention and that's fine...we have different goals. But in the end it should be up to the user if he or she is going to be broadcast to the public. Some people have jobs that require anonymity for example, as well as jobs that do background checks (unlike FB, Twitter, and Instagram where they actually post publicly). The publicity OCs and live jams is potentially be dangerous, especially when someone has no idea this stuff is actually public.  Then there is the issue of COPPA and children under 13...which is a whole different can of worms...bottom line, not to mention the content of what has gone on in live jams (and those are just ones I have been in...I have heard more stories). Bottom line, none of this should be public unless the user makes it public.

[Guest]

Crazyjster,

I think the majority of users are on the app to sing ... and have fun doing so. I get what you’re saying, but as I have repeatedly stated, the privacy feature would solve the problem. Open your Jam, put it on private, invite who you want, and problem solved! Safe from trolls, spam, freaks, or whatever. If you don’t want it public, as you stated in the last sentence of your comment, then use the privacy feature. It works! Trust me. Over and out! Peace! 😊✌🏼

[[Member Craz…]]

I hear ya and do so on mine...its problems when joining others jams that myself  and others run into problems. I really enjoy going in and listening to others but I feel terrible when I know that spammers and trolls follow me in (at this point user names and avatars are familiar and creatively changed so banning doesn't work).

[[Member insp…]]

On 8/14/2019 at 5:16 PM, PeacefulJoin said:

Setting everything to private should remedy it, correct?

"Private" actually means UNLISTED in Smule-land. ("unlisted" meaning, cannot be browsed by others. It also doesn't turn up in the search results). However, anyone who has the link to it can still view it. And they can give that link to anyone else.

So in Smule, after you set something to "private", you yourself can give someone the link if you want them to view it. But remember, they can give this link to anyone else and so on, and you can't control this. This can be problematic.

Let's say there was a case where one's "private" recording on Smule was still getting lots of views and/or unnecessary/unsolicited comments - this would only mean that for some reason, the link was being shared. In this case, the only option one would have to control this would be to delete it.

 

In principle, if something is to be really PRIVATE, then only you should be able to view it. In case it is a duet collab (or group collab), once it has been set to PRIVATE, only you and the co-singer(s) should be able to view it. The old links should not work anymore -- if they continued to work, it would imply that this was just UNLISTED, not PRIVATE.

For comparison, YouTube has 3 privacy options: Public, Unlisted and Private.

 

Labeling "unlisted" as "private" is thus confusing and misleading!

[[Member insp…]]

DISCLOSURE: Hey all! Soon after I posted the above comment, I found out that it could be improved further for clarity. So I went about editing it. But I could not save it, as the time limit to edit had passed. Hence, I'm posting the revised comment here. Kindly note that I'm NOT trying to spam. Thanks!

 

"Private" actually means UNLISTED in Smule-land. ("unlisted" here meaning, it cannot be found by others by simply browsing around. It also doesn't turn up in the search results). However, anyone who has the link to it can still view it. And they can give that link to anyone else.

So in Smule, after you set something to "private", you yourself can give someone the link if you want them to view it. But remember, they can give this link to anyone else and so on, and you can't control this. This can be problematic.

Let's say there was a case where one's "private" recording on Smule was still getting lots of views and/or unnecessary/unsolicited comments - this would only mean that for some reason, the link was being shared among people that you didn't know or otherwise didn't wish to interact with for any reason. In this case, the only option one would have to control this would be to delete it.

 

In principle, if something is to be really PRIVATE, then only you and anyone else that you have expressly allowed, should be able to view it. And, you should be able to disallow anyone anytime.

 

Thus ideally, in case of Smule recordings, if it is a solo recording, only you should be able to view it after you've set it to PRIVATE. If it is a duet collab (or group collab), once it has been set to PRIVATE, only you and the co-singer(s) should be able to view it. The old links should not work anymore (though, optionally, you as the owner could still be able to generate new, one-time or limited-time links and thus share with people in a controlled manner). If the old links continued to work, it would imply that this was still just UNLISTED, not PRIVATE.

 

For comparison, YouTube has 3 privacy options: Public, Unlisted and Private. And the Private option has further user access management, putting the control of whom to allow/disallow into the hands of the owner.

 

Labeling "unlisted" as "private" is thus confusing and misleading!

[[Member Craz…]]

You are correct. Nothing is private if you give someone a link because the link can be shared. But honestly this is no different then anything else you share (text message etc)... 
 

HOWEVER UPDATE TO MY ORIGINAL POST: LIVE JAMS CAN NO LONGER BE VIEWED ON PC BY ANYONE 

[[Member insp…]]

3 hours ago, Crazyjster said:

Nothing is private if you give someone a link because the link can be shared. But honestly this is no different then anything else you share (text message etc)

There's a CRUCIAL difference!

A link, by itself, ONLY POINTS to something else.

A text (or a picture, or a video) CONTAINS the actual information.

3 hours ago, Crazyjster said:

HOWEVER UPDATE TO MY ORIGINAL POST: LIVE JAMS CAN NO LONGER BE VIEWED ON PC BY ANYONE

Glad to read that! That should make the live jams less vulnerable to abuse than before.