Netflix To Start Cracking Down On Password Sharing In Some Countries
If you’re one of the many Netflix users who shares your account with a family member or a friend — or you happen to be the family member or friend who uses someone else’s Netflix account — your days of free Netflix piggybacking may soon come to an end. The streaming service is now testing a feature that would encourage people to share their Netflix account — but only after they pay a few extra bucks to add additional members to their account.
According to a blog post on Netflix’s website, the company is initially trying the concept in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru. In those countries, users will have the option to “add an extra member” for up to two people outside their household. The pricing varies by country but it’s basically a couple of extra dollars per additional user, as opposed to those people paying upwards of $10 or $15, depending on the level of Netflix membership they want, for their own separate account.
“While [allowing accounts to have separate profiles] have been hugely popular, they have also created some confusion about when and how Netflix can be shared,” Chengyi Long writes in the blog post. “As a result, accounts are being shared between households - impacting our ability to invest in great new TV and films for our members.” Netflix users in these countries will also have the ability to transfer their profile from another user’s account to one that they create — so if Netflix Freeloader X was using Netflix Subscriber Y’s account, but then wants to get their own subscription, Netflix Freeloader X won’t lose all the titles in their queue or their viewing history.
The goal of the feature, according to Long, is to allow people to share their account “easily and securely, while also paying a bit more” — in other words, to get at least a few extra bucks out of the thousands upon thousands of people who are currently getting Netflix for nothing.
The post doesn’t say how Netflix plans to police users who share their accounts with people outside their household, and it also doesn’t say when or even if these features will be brought to the United States or other countries. But it’s clearly something Netflix is thinking about and working on, so keep that in mind the next time you ask your mom if you can have her password.