"This data is encrypted and can be edited by the plan owner as needed," the company said in a statement. Spotify, whose premium service doesn't serve up ads, maintains that it's only using your location data for verification. Its closest competitor, Apple Music, has 60 million subscribers. With 108 million subscribers, Spotify is the dominant force in streaming music. In New York, lawmakers are considering a bill banning apps from sharing people's location data within the city. Even when the data is anonymized, location data is often so specific that it only takes a few steps to figure out who the coordinates are linked to. Location data is particularly sensitive, as it hands out information on where you've been, giving companies and advertisers details about your personal life. "The changes to the policy allow Spotify to arbitrarily use the location of an individual to ascertain if they continue to reside at the same address when using a family account, and it's unclear how often Spotify will query users' devices for this information," said Christopher Weatherhead, technology lead for UK watchdog group Privacy International, adding that there are "worrying privacy implications."
Now it intends on rolling the location data requests out fully, reigniting privacy concerns and raising the question of how much is too much when it comes to your personal information. The company tested this last year and asked for exact GPS coordinates but ended the pilot program after customers balked, according to TechCrunch. The family plan terms rolled out first on Aug. You have 30 days to cancel after the new terms went into effect, which depends on where you are. So in August, the company updated its terms and conditions for Premium Family subscribers, requiring that they provide location data "from time to time" to ensure that customers are actually all in the same family. But the streaming music giant is concerned about people abusing that plan to pay as little as $2.50 for its services. The only condition is that they all live at the same address. Premium Family is a $15-a-month plan for up to six people. It's part of an effort to detect fraud and abuse of its Premium Family program. Spotify will also want to know where you live or to obtain your location data. Spotify knows a lot about its users - their musical tastes, their most listened-to artists and their summer anthems. We are thrilled to bring this subscription tier to the country" added Amarjit Batra, Managing Director - India, Spotify.Spotify will be requesting location data for Premium Family subscribers. Family time and recreation are a core part of our culture, and we want users to discover new music and podcasts through their family, without compromising on their personal taste and app experience. “Spotify’s Premium Family plan has been loved across markets, and we know that our users in India wanted it when we launched in February. “At a time where parents are trying to reduce screen time for both themselves and their family, we’re creating more ways for families to bond over music together, while still celebrating individual tastes and giving parents more control if they want it." said Alex Norström, chief premium business officer, Spotify. Globally, Spotify recently upgraded its Premium Family plan, so subscribers in India will also have the added advantage of Parental Controls where parents will be able to control the Explicit Content Filter setting for music for all other accounts on their plan, Family Mix where families will get exclusive access to a personalized playlist packed with songs the whole family enjoys, and Family Hub where billing users can manage their family’s settings in one place, including adding or removing family members, keeping the home address up to date, and adjusting parental controls.
#Spotify family full#
With Spotify Premium Family plan, listeners will get up to six accounts per family, where each individual account on the plan gets the full Spotify Premium experience, can save and play music offline (no-data required) on up to three devices per Premium account, play any song or audio content, anytime, on any device without any ads.Īdditionally, one monthly bill will be sent to the master account holder, for the entire family.