Netflix May Soon Crack Down on Password Sharing

[MacRumors]

Netflix may be cracking down on those who share passwords between separate households, according to a test found by The Streamable. Some Netflix subscribers have been getting a message about not living with the account holder when attempting to stream content.

"If you don't live with the owner of this account, you need your own account to keep watching," reads the warning message. From there, users are prompted to verify the account with an email or text verification code, or to sign up for a separate Netflix account.

Netflix told The Streamable that the test is "designed to help ensure that people using Netflix accounts are authorized to do so." It's not clear if the warning is popping up based on IP address or another metric.

Netflix's terms of service do prohibit subscribers from sharing their passwords with people outside of their households, but many people do so anyway. Back in 2020, Netflix chief product officer Greg Peters told The Wall Street Journal that Netflix monitors password sharing, but at the time, had no plans to announce on the topic.

There are built-in limits to the number of devices that can simultaneously stream content from Netflix. The $8.99 basic plan is limits streaming to a single device, while the $13.99 standard plan allows for streaming on two devices. The $17.99 plan allows for streaming on up to four devices.

Article Link: Netflix May Soon Crack Down on Password Sharing

 

[breather]

Damn

 

[LFC2020]

Netflix needs to shut up and lower their prices, cheapest 4K plan is $20 is Aus.

 

[HeavenDynamic]

This is the end of an era my friends. We enjoyed our free Netflix as much as we could before the 2020's but there is no turning back. Everything we took for granted is being taken back from us.

 

[carrrrrlos]

Sharing with a child going to college count? Technically still a part of the household for a portion of the year.

 

[BeefCake 15]

Just in time when their content is getting worse!

 

[Ramsos]

I only continue to pay for Netflix because of the people with the password. They need to be lowering their prices.

 

[ThisBougieLife]

So what if I want to log into my account at my vacation home while I’m there for a week? Are they going to crack down on that and insist I get a second account?

 

[nutmac]

Netflix should price their plans accordingly also.

I don't share password with those outside my household. I pay for Netflix Premium solely for 4K HDR. And Netflix has by far the heaviest compression rate among services that offer 4K HDR.

Netflix should offer 4K HDR on the standard tier as well.

 

[ian87w]

Wait. Netflix advertise those higher tiers capable of multiple simultaneous streams. So who cares about the persons watching? If the service is advertised as capable of simultaneous streams, it's up to the user when and where to stream it, no?

 

[BigMcGuire]

So what if I want to log into my account at my vacation home while I’m there for a week? Are they going to crack down on that and insist I get a second account?

I'm guessing as long as you can validate with an annoying code you'll be ok.

 

[adamjackson]

Good. Bring on the downvotes but like people who stole Adobe Photoshop back in the day leading to photoshop costing $700 for a license or whatever it was before Creative Suite subscriptions came along, we paid for people who were freeloading. If Netflix can get every household to pay their fare share, maybe these price hikes will stop being a yearly festivity.

...and if you don't like it, literally every show on Netflix is available on BitTorrent.

 

[1984 Mac Guru]

What stops me from having a code texted to the owner and then ask the owner to reveal it to me? Is there a mechanism that prevents this?

 

[dannyyankou]

Whether they live in your house or not, what difference does it make if you’re within the device limit?

 

[toanavinai]

T-Mobile customers get "Netflix On Us" as part of their pre-paid family plans, and those families don't necessarily have to be under the same roof. Has this perk just been essentially eliminated? If so, lame.

 

[aesc80]

Not a surprise at all. When you consider how much content costs, who much content will cost in the future, and heavy competition from multiple sides, Netflix needs to raise more money by eliminating people who may be considered "riding for free" on someone else's account. I know it sucks, but I'm sure Netflix is itching for more funds to produce better content.

 

[BigMcGuire]

What stops me from having a code texted to the owner and then ask the owner to reveal it to me? Is there a mechanism that prevents this?

If it's anything like Apple Family Share - nothing - just the annoyance factor. Seems to happen to me for family members not living with me vs those in my house (for Apple Family Sharing). <cough>.

 

[Unity451]

That should crack down on content that glorifies child pornography instead.

 

[macjoshua]

People complaining about the high price apparently don't realize that Netflix might be a lot cheaper if all its users were actually paying customers.

Edit: Not saying prices will go down. I'm saying they might not have gotten so high so quickly.

 

[ian87w]

Good. Bring on the downvotes but like people who stole Adobe Photoshop back in the day leading to photoshop costing $700 for a license or whatever it was before Creative Suite subscriptions came along, we paid for people who were freeloading. If Netflix can get every household to pay their fare share, maybe these price hikes will stop being a yearly festivity.

...and if you don't like it, literally every show on Netflix is available on BitTorrent.

False. People paid for the tier with simultaneous streaming. So the service shall provide what has been paid for.

Using your Adobe analogy, this is like you bought 2 licenses of Adobe Photoshop, and let your family member to use the second license, but Adobe asked him/her to get his/her own license and not used the one you already paid for because they're not "you" as the individual who purchased the license.

 

[aesc80]

T-Mobile customers get "Netflix On Us" as part of their pre-paid family plans, and those families don't necessarily have to be under the same roof. Has this perk just been essentially eliminated? If so, lame.

I don't think they'll apply the same to mobile devices. That would totally sucks. I wonder if they'll eliminate chrome casting from their app (or just get a geographical ID from the IP on the casting device).

 

[D.T.]

Sharing with a child going to college count? Technically still a part of the household for a portion of the year.

I suspect they'll offer some kind of "family plan", i.e., some kind of device registration implementation not unlike iTunes, so they won't so much care "where" the device is located, but total devices (and a price per model).

So what if I want to log into my account at my vacation home while I’m there for a week? Are they going to crack down on that and insist I get a second account?

I assume that even if it's something as primitive as IP based initially (just to start pushing out these warnings), they have a roadmap to do something to allow for X number of "access accounts", including mobile/remote where you aren't on the same network (see above).

 

[macjoshua]

False. People paid for the tier with simultaneous streaming. So the service shall provide what has been paid for.

Using your Adobe analogy, this is like you bought 2 licenses of Adobe Photoshop, and let your family member to use the second license, but Adobe asked him/her to get his/her own license and not used the one you already paid for.

Simultaneous streaming on Netflix was never intended for multiple households. It says in their terms that it's intended for people within the same household.

 

[AppleTO]

Yeah... I don’t see how that warning message is going to stop anyone. Unless you share your password with random strangers, whoever is trying to watch is obviously going to ask the account holder for the verification code.

Comparing public IPs wouldn’t work either. Someone could be watching on their phone using data, or be at somebody else’s house.

I don’t think they can really enforce this in any way that would actually work...

 

[ian87w]

People complaining about the high price apparently don't realize that Netflix might be a lot cheaper if all its users were actually paying customers.

The service used are already paid for. This is not users for some reason streaming netflix illegally (that's impossible). Netflix are the ones offering the tiers with multiple streams being allowed. So that's what people are using.

For example, the highest tier, allows 4 screens at the same time. So 4 separate devices can use the same account. Who cares about the actual persons watching it? The service is already paid for.