Streaming giant Netflix is trying out a new test to stop password sharing. Some users have been reported to seeing a screen from Netflix asking for authorization if they are the account owner to continue watching on the TV app.
A Twitter user @DOP3Sweet posted a screenshot on Twitter with a Netflix logon screen saying “If you don’t live with the owner of this account, you need your own account to keep watching.” If you are the real account owner, Netflix will email you a code or send an SMS with the authorization code you need to continue watching. If you are not the account owner, you can select “Verify Later” and the screen will disappear for now.
“This test is designed to help ensure that people using Netflix accounts are authorised to do so,” a Netflix spokesperson told the BBC. According to Netflix’s term of service, “content viewed through the service are for your personal and non-commercial use only and may not be shared with individuals beyond your household.”
Normally, Netflix allows account owners to create multiple profiles only for household members, but account owners can still decide to share password with whoever they want. It is not clear how many users are violating this term of service. In January, Netflix surged past 200 million subscribers as competition continues to grow. Disney’s streaming service, Disney Plus recently announced a milestone of 100 million subscribers in less than a year and a half of its launch.
Netflix co-founder and chief executive Reed Hastings spoke on password sharing during a webcast in 2016, Reed said “password sharing is something you have to learn to live with, because there’s so much legitimate password sharing, like you sharing with your spouse, with your kids, so there’s no bright line, and we’re doing fine as is.”
During a 2019 earnings call, Netflix’s chief product officer Greg Peters said the company was concerned about password sharing but there was no “big plans to announce at this time in terms of doing something differently there“.
In 2020, Netflix gained 37 million new subscribers as people were stuck at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The company may struggle to maintain those numbers in 2021 as the world continues to ease-out of the global pandemic.
