Spotify has attempted to curb abuse of its family plan in the past, and faced backlash for doing so. Now, Spotify is renewing its efforts to prevent abuse of its family plan by requiring that users occasionally provide access to their location data.

Spotify’s Premium Family plan is $15 per month and allows up to six users to access the service. However, as with any streaming service, it’s not uncommon for friends to come together to share a family subscription – and pay as little as $2.50 per month for Spotify access. That’s the type of abuse Spotify is now looking to prevent.

As spotted by CNET, Spotify last month revised its terms and conditions for the family plan to say that users will be required to provide location “from time to time.”

A requirement of the family plan is that all users live at the same address, and by collecting location data from users, Spotify seemingly hopes that it can stop non-families from using the family plan. The new policy went into effect in the United States on September 5th.

In a statement, Spotify defended this new family plan requirement and said that all location data is only used for verifying home addresses and is deleted afterwards:

“This data is encrypted and can be edited by the plan owner as needed,” the company said in a statement. “The location data that is collected during Premium Family account creation is only used by Spotify for that purpose. Once verification of a family member’s home address is completed, we do not store their location data or track their location at any time.”

This sort of location sharing requirement is sure to frustrate Spotify users, especially as companies like Apple have put an increasing emphasis on privacy. Location information has become particularly sensitive. This isn’t the first time Spotify has tried to use location data to confirm family plans, but with the requirement being added to the terms and conditions, the policy is seemingly here to stay.

What do you think of the Spotify requirement? Let us know down in the comments.

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