Netflix To Crackdown On Password Sharing (1 Viewer)

[Alex...]

Popular streaming service Netflix is planning to put an end to password sharing starting in early 2023, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal.

Netflix has long known that password sharing is a problem affecting its profits, but the uptick in subscriptions in 2020 allowed the company to avoid addressing it. With revenue falling this year and Netflix's first subscriber loss in 10 years, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings decided it was time to act on the issue, which had been put off for too long.

Starting in 2023, Netflix plans to ask people who share accounts with others outside of their household to pay to do so. Netflix has been testing add-on payments for password sharing in some Latin American countries, charging around $3 extra. In these countries, the primary account owner must provide a verification code to anyone outside the household who wants to access the account, with Netflix repeatedly asking for the code until a monthly fee is paid to add non-household subscribers.

A similar tactic could be used in the United States, with Netflix possibly charging just below the cost of its $6.99 ad-supported plan for non-household subscribers who share someone's plan. Netflix wants those who have a shared password to sign up for their own subscription.

Netflix will enforce password sharing rules through IP addresses, device IDs, and account activity. To keep from alienating customers, Netflix may slowly phase out password sharing rather than putting a stop to it all at once. One method Netflix reportedly considered was adding pay-per-view content that could make users not want to share their passwords with people who might rent content, but Netflix ultimately decided against it.

Netflix to Begin Cracking Down on Password Sharing in Early 2023

Popular streaming service Netflix is planning to put an end to password sharing starting in early 2023, according to a new report from The Wall...

www.macrumors.com

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Yeah, this news has been around for a few months now.

I know some individuals who had their shared accounts shut down so Netflix is already taking action against those who are using shared passwords.

 

[Mark-P]

I’m fine with them cracking down on unauthorized sharing. I just hope they can tell the difference between that and my household where a myriad of different devices access our account, and at different locations such as home and work.

 

[Scott-S]

I am glad to hear this. I can't help but feel my monthly subscription rate keeps going up partly due to all of the people basically getting the service for free. If you use a service, pay for it like the rest of us.

 

[TravisR]

While I fully agree with the idea that you should pay for a service if you're using it, I love that when they were the only streaming game in town, Netflix was the cool friend who didn't care if you shared passwords. Now that there's competition, Netflix discovered that they ain't so cool.

 

[dpippel]

Shouldn't this be in the "Streaming Services and Digital Media" forum?

 

[John Dirk]

I'm curious how they plan to go about enforcing this on a large scale. There are geofencing and IP address monitoring options available but both would preclude the ability to use the service abroad, something I believe is integral to its overall value proposition. I myself just returned from a trip out west and used my Netflix account everyday.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I'm curious how they plan to go about enforcing this on a large scale. There are geofencing and IP address monitoring options available but both would preclude the ability to use the service abroad, something I believe is integral to its overall value proposition. I myself just returned from a trip out west and used my Netflix account everyday.

My guess is that they are looking at two different IP addresses logging into the same account at the same time.

That's just off the top of my head

 

[Sam Posten]

Moved this thread to the right forum

 

[Todd Erwin]

I’m fine with them cracking down on unauthorized sharing. I just hope they can tell the difference between that and my household where a myriad of different devices access our account, and at different locations such as home and work.

Or simply on a vacation.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

My guess is that they are looking at two different IP addresses logging into the same account at the same time.

That's just off the top of my head

They'll need to be much smarter than just that if they don't want to alienate a majority of their customers.

I suspect they'll probably need to do some kinda smart profiling of each account's access to determine whether each particular IP (or probably even app/browser identification) is legit or not. Certainly, IP alone (w/out any other contextual info) would not be remotely enough.

I imagine they'd wanna err on the side of not (plausibly incorrectly) restricting access...

_Man_

 

[Ronald Epstein]

They'll need to be much smarter than just that if they don't want to alienate a majority of their customers.

I suspect they'll probably need to do some kinda smart profiling of each account's access to determine whether each particular IP (or probably even app/browser identification) is legit or not. Certainly, IP alone (w/out any other contextual info) would not be remotely enough.

I imagine they'd wanna err on the side of not (plausibly incorrectly) restricting access...

_Man_

Listen, I am only giving assumptions about how they are going to do it.

All I know is that for the past few months, Netflix has been making some strong statements about cracking down on the sharing of passwords.

I know someone that runs an AirBnB. Guests leave their passwords on his home theater all the time. He used to be able to take advantage of that. Now, they are being revoked. Either the owner of the account is doing it or it's Netflix.

Netflix seems to be pretty confident about what they are setting out to do.

It could also be a scare tactic.

 

[bmasters9]

I’m fine with them cracking down on unauthorized sharing. I just hope they can tell the difference between that and my household where a myriad of different devices access our account, and at different locations such as home and work.

I can understand too if they didn't want you sharing it with other people; what I would not be cool with is if they interpreted "sharing" to mean that you use your account on a different device in the absence of one device (like, say, you're at the beach, away from your home television; they could possibly take "sharing" to mean that you have to use the account on the device on which it originates, and using it on any other device [like on your mobile phone at the beach when you're away from your home television] could be construed as "sharing").

 

[Clinton McClure]

I’ll be watching how they implement this with great interest now that I’m traveling frequently for work. There are times when my wife and I may both be watching Netflix in different states at the same time. I was lugging around one of my ATV4K units everywhere I went but I eventually bought a 9th gen iPad to use solely as a media consumption device.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Listen, I am only giving assumptions about how they are going to do it.

All I know is that for the past few months, Netflix has been making some strong statements about cracking down on the sharing of passwords.

I know someone that runs an AirBnB. Guests leave their passwords on his home theater all the time. He used to be able to take advantage of that. Now, they are being revoked. Either the owner of the account is doing it or it's Netflix.

Netflix seems to be pretty confident about what they are setting out to do.

It could also be a scare tactic.

No worries, and sorry, if sounded like I was critical of you or anything like that.

FWIW, they were logging people off looong before any of this, so that instance of your acquaintance running an aBnB is probably nothing new and might not have anything to do w/ this.

I mean... various members of my family (and my mother using same account) have been getting logged off periodically for a long time now... usually after not using the account for a while, but not always. I suspect it's partly just due to the limited simultaneous streaming access for each account (that varies depending on the specific paid level).

Now, if your acquaintance actually has the password, which he/she shouldn't (for an aBnB guest), and cannot log back on, that would be different and probably point to some new NF tactic...

_Man_

 

[bmasters9]

I’ll we watching how they implement this with great interest now that I’m traveling frequently for work. There are times when my wife and I may both be watching Netflix in different states at the same time. I was lugging around one of my ATV4K units everywhere I went but I eventually bought a 9th gen iPad to use solely as a media consumption device.

That's why I said what I said-- I don't want you to be enjoying something on your account, then all of a sudden it's cut off due to nebulous "sharing" rules (possibly due to a strict interpretation where using it on different devices, even in the same family unit, and even when two people use it on different devices, is counted as giving it to someone else).

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

FWIW, they will never stop 100% of sharing regardless of what they try unless they overreach (by a lot) and likely alienate too many customers.

I'm guessing they will (or should) probably be plenty happy just to stop/deter/substantially inconvenience maybe 80% of the (typical) sharing and increase their paid customer base from a fraction of those.

Afterall, even the much more mature, long existing, credit card industry has settled on accepting a certain amount of losses due to theft, etc to not alienate their large customer base. Not like NF's running a monopoly on streaming afterall by this point...

_Man_

 

[David Deeb]

I wonder if Netflix will “save” expenses with this as well.

If any content is licensed based on the number of streams, then Netflix won’t pay as much if a sharer quits watching. Highly unlikely the original subscriber will drop the service just because his freeloading neighbor can’t get it anymore.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

I wonder if Netflix will “save” expenses with this as well.

If any content is licensed based on the number of streams, then Netflix won’t pay as much if a sharer quits watching. Highly unlikely the original subscriber will drop the service just because his freeloading neighbor can’t get it anymore.

That really depends though on how they do it. Not every share is just w/ some "freeloading neighbor" afterall. Certainly, there are somehwat-gray areas as well...

_Man_

 

[John Dirk]

I’ll be watching how they implement this with great interest now that I’m traveling frequently for work. There are times when my wife and I may both be watching Netflix in different states at the same time. I was lugging around one of my ATV4K units everywhere I went but I eventually bought a 9th gen iPad to use solely as a media consumption device.

Same here. I just returned from a trip a few days ago. During that time my wife and I may have been legitimately using our account simultaneously but from completely different geographic locations. As @ManW_TheUncool implied, if Netflix is smart they'll just go after the low hanging fruit here so as to not create a problem bigger than the one they're trying to solve.