Spotify co-CEO Alex Norström took to this week's earnings call to address the company's new QR code verification for Family plan users, and he'd like you to know this is absolutely not a crackdown, thank you very much. It is a "routine improvement" - a phrase that has never, in the history of corporate language, preceded anything routine.

The new system requires users to scan a QR code on the plan manager's phone to prove they actually live together, as Family plans are supposed to be reserved for people in the same household. TechCrunch reports that when asked about the crackdown, Norström framed it as just good housekeeping: "This is not as much a crackdown as it is actually a routine improvement of our verification methods for our Family Plan."

He added context on the plan's longevity and popularity: "Family Plan has existed for a long while. It has been around for, I think it is now close to 12, 13 years in Spotify history, and it makes up a pretty significant proportion of our subscriber base." So significant, apparently, that it's worth deploying QR codes that refresh every few seconds to ensure your "family" isn't just five college friends in three different time zones.

Norström continued, "As such, it is important for us to just make sure over time that we improve the verification methods that we have. There are certainly ways, over time, to find holes around it. As that happens, we figure out how to improve it over time." Which is a very polite way of saying: yes, we know you've been sharing your mom's account with your roommate's cousin, and yes, we're coming for you.

And this isn't Spotify's first attempt to rein in Family plan freeloaders. The company has long insisted the plan is only for people living in the same household. But the new QR code method has forced some users to get creative to stay on their shared Premium subscriptions - because the code refreshes every few seconds, and anyone who misses the seven-day window to scan it gets banned from joining a different Family or Duo plan for 12 months. That's a full year of being exiled from the family you never actually belonged to.

Norström also noted that the crackdown - sorry, "routine improvement" - has no end date: "This is not something that has an end date. This is not an implementation that is going to complete. This is just ongoing routine." So enjoy your QR codes, everyone. Your family will be verified every few seconds, forever, until the heat death of the universe or Spotify's next earnings call, whichever comes first.