If you’re sharing your Netflix password, Netflix just released a brand new feature that will make it a little bit harder for you to share it with your ex-roommate. Coming up this week, Netflix is rolling out a test that will make it even harder for you to share your password.
So this week the streamable broke the news that Netflix is cracking down on password sharing. You know that little thing where you share your password with all your friends, your ex-roommates, their sister, your ex-boyfriend, your ex-girlfriend, all those people.
Well, you can’t do that anymore, earlier this week some people on Netflix started getting this message that says if you don’t live with the owner of this account you need your own account to keep watching. And then what happened is it gave you the option to either start a free 30-day trial or you could email a code or text message to the owner of the account who would have to verify and people started getting a little confused about what this meant in terms of password sharing.
You may even have to Bypass Netflix’s Proxy Error, which can simply be solved with the use of a VPN easily.
So Netflix confirmed to the streamable that they are starting a test to crack down on password sharing and this is what Netflix told us. This test is designed to help ensure the people using netflix accounts are authorized to do so.
So we’ve heard for now this test is just on connected tv devices, whether that’s Apple TV, Fire TV or Roku and it’s not rolling out to everyone quite yet and it’s not exactly clear how this is activated.
It is sent to people when they’re not connected on the same IP address or log in from a totally different location we’re not exactly sure quite yet but it’s clear that Netflix is changing their tune on sharing your passwords with friends.
According to the Netflix official terms of service, the Netflix service and any content viewed through the service are for your own personal and non-commercial use only and may not be shared with individuals beyond your household.
What does a household actually mean? that doesn’t necessarily mean that you are living in the same house which is why this is actually an interesting way that Netflix is policing it. They’re not stopping you completely from sharing it with people outside your house.
Instead, they’re just making someone that you should know to confirm via email or text message that this account should be able to log in with that in fact, there are some people actually happy this is going in effect because passwords have been shared so widely with people who have shared houses and were roommates that this actually enforces it so the person actually paying for it doesn’t have someone mooching off of their account.
Netflix has been on the record about password sharing for a while in October 2019 Netflix chief product officer Greg Peters said in respect to password sharing we’ll continue to monitor it so we’re looking at the situation and look into consumer-friendly ways to push at the edges but at the time he said there’s no big plans.
This is quite a change of tune of what Netflix said in the past in 2016 Reed Hastings the CO-CEO of Netflix said we love password sharing and the reason he said that is he felt that the more people who shared Netflix the more likely they would ultimately become subscribers.
In the past the only way that they really enforced it was how many people could share at the same time on a basic account one person on a standard two and on a premium count four simultaneous streams so the question is why have they changed their tune?
Well part of it is they are so big now they have over 200 million subscribers and when you have so many subscribers how do you get new ones well get people who are already using it but not paying for it.And there are a lot of people out there that probably would pay for it at the 13.99 a month had they not have the option to take someone else’s password.
So this is actually a pretty savvy trick by Netflix in order to get more people who are mooching other people’s accounts to actually start paying. So how many people are sharing their Netflix password? Well according to a research report by Mageed 35% of millennials share their passwords, that’s a lot of people who are actually doing password sharing.
I think the bigger fear for streamers is if this works for Netflix, what will happen on other streaming services like Disney plus, allows four streams and HBO Max allows three streams but more or less they don’t really care where that stream is coming from.
And if this is a savvy product move for Netflix I wouldn’t be surprised to see other streaming services especially the bigger ones starting to enforce it, so the last thing is is it actually illegal to share your password? Probably not unless you’re selling it. It certainly is against the terms of service of Netflix if you’re sharing your account with someone outside of your household, they could potentially close your account if you do that.
There are some states where it’s a little Murkier Tennessee passed a law in 2011 that made it more or less illegal to share your Netflix password. The fine is about $2500 so there is some risk associated with it but, I don’t think Netflix has actually ever gone after anyone. Netflix has also extended its partnership with SwissTV.
I’ll leave you at this, it is actually a pretty smart move by Netflix they basically are making it annoying to share your password. Imagine if you have to get a text message or email from your ex-roommate every single time you want to log into your Netflix account you probably will just pay the money instead.
Let us know in the comments below do you share your Netflix password and would this get you to create your own account? If you found this blog helps, make sure you hit that like and share button!
