Tidal

Is Tidal safe?

Yes. Tidal is a paid, ad-free music service with no open chat, and Apple's privacy label shows no tracking across other companies' apps. We score it 74/100, behind Apple Music (78) but well ahead of Spotify (57), whose free tier is paid for by profiled ads.

What keeps it from the top is ownership. Tidal belongs to Block, Inc., the company behind Cash App and Square, and its privacy notice lets data move between them. And while it offers passkeysPasskeyA way to sign in without a password. Your device holds a key tied to one website or app and unlocks it with your fingerprint, face or PIN.More in the glossary, password logins stay open too.

What Tidal collects and who sees it

Apple's label for the iPhone app has no "Data Used to Track You" section. Email address and device ID are linked to you for Tidal's own advertising or marketing, and search history, user ID and listening activity for analytics and personalised mixes. On Android, Google Play says the app shares no data with third parties.

Because there is no free tier, Tidal does not need ad profiles to pay for streaming. Its privacy notice, last updated on 25 June 2026, says targeting cookies are placed only with your consent through a cookie preference centre, and that in the past 12 months Tidal has not sold or shared personal data under US state privacy laws. It may still send you marketing emails, including offers on behalf of other advertisers, until you opt out in account settings.

The point to know is Block. The notice says Tidal "is one of the legal entities of Block, Inc." and may share your data with Square, Cash App and Afterpay/Clearpay to understand how you use the group's products and to protect its services. Tidal also promotes a Cash App discount on its plans. If you do not want your listening linked to a payments app, that is worth weighing.

Block's own regulatory record is heavy. In January 2025 the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered Block to pay up to $175 million over fraud handling at Cash App. That order names Cash App, not Tidal, so it is context here rather than part of Tidal's score.

How secure is a Tidal account?

We found no breach of Tidal's systems. Tidal supports passkeysPasskeyA way to sign in without a password. Your device holds a key tied to one website or app and unlocks it with your fingerprint, face or PIN.More in the glossary: you can log in with your phone's screen lock, a fingerprint or a USB security key, and create up to 10 of them. That is stronger protection against phishing than the text codes many apps use. The catch is that password and email-code logins stay available, so a reused password can still let someone in.

Tidal publishes a security contact, [email protected], with an encryption key for researchers, and runs a public bug bounty on Bugcrowd that pays $100 to $5,000 per valid report. Its HackerOne page is an empty directory entry, not a programme.

Uploads and AI music

Tidal Upload, in Tidal's help centre since July 2024, lets users aged 18 and over in the US, UK, EEA, Switzerland and Canada upload their own tracks, share them and charge listeners for access. That brings user content into a catalogue that used to be all licensed. Tidal also labels recordings it finds to be wholly AI-generated, and a setting lets you stop AI-labelled tracks from playing.

The Norwegian fraud inquiry

In 2018 Norwegian music industry groups, including the copyright society Tono, filed criminal complaints alleging that Tidal's streaming figures for 2016 had been manipulated. Økokrim, Norway's economic crime unit, investigated for almost five years and dropped all charges on 27 June 2023, finding the evidence insufficient. The case concerned royalties paid to rights holders, not users' data or money, so it does not lower the score.

How to use Tidal more safely

1. Set up a passkeyPasskeyA way to sign in without a password. Your device holds a key tied to one website or app and unlocks it with your fingerprint, face or PIN.More in the glossary at account.tidal.com under Log In Details, and use a unique password as a fallback.
2. Refuse targeting cookies in the cookie preference centre, and turn off marketing emails in account settings.
3. Switch off explicit content in the playback settings if a teenager uses the account.
4. Delete the account from Settings, under Manage Account, when you leave; deletion removes playlists, uploads and history for good.

How we scored it

Scams and harmful content (82) and the regulatory record (85) are Tidal's strongest factors: licensed music, no ads, no chat and no fine naming the app. Transparency and control (72) reflects a detailed notice and in-app deletion. Privacy (68) is the weakest, held back by data sharing within Block. Security (73) credits passkeysPasskeyA way to sign in without a password. Your device holds a key tied to one website or app and unlocks it with your fingerprint, face or PIN.More in the glossary and a paid bug bounty, but password logins stay open. For comparison, Deezer scores 57.