Netflix has made good on its warning of an impending crackdown on account password sharing in early 2023, explaining its new rules in a Help Center article (via The Streamable).
According to Netflix’s estimates, more than 100 million users across the globe use another person’s Netflix account to access the service. Netflix hopes that implementing new anti-password sharing measures will encourage users who currently share accounts to create their own, generating new revenue for the streamer after a shaky few quarters.
Last year, Netflix posted its first quarterly subscriber loss in more than a decade. The streaming giant has somewhat rebounded since then, beating expectations and adding 7.6 million subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2022.
“A Netflix account is for people who live together in a single household,” the company says on the Help Center page. “People who do not live in your household will need to use their own account to watch Netflix.”
Moving forward, Netflix will only allow users to share accounts with people within their household. Users will be required to connect to the Wi-Fi at their “primary location” — their home Wi-Fi, for example, head over to Netflix, and watch something on the service at least once every 31 days.
Doing so will mark the device as a “trusted device,” and failure to do so could result in Netflix blocking the device from its platform.
“To ensure that your devices are associated with your primary location, Netflix is now asking users to connect to the Wi-Fi at your primary location, open the Netflix app or website, and watch something at least once every 31 days,” Netflix noted.
The company explained that it uses “information such as IP addresses, device IDs, and account activity from devices signed into the Netflix account” to determine which devices belong to one household.
Netflix’s anti-password sharing rules are rolling out now, and they are already active in Canada. Check out the Netflix Help Center to learn more.
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rip, you will not be missed netflix subscription.
Cancelled my Netflix after seeing this. My dad was the only one using it. If Netflix ever has another show worth watching (big if), I’ll just download it.
Too funny. They worry about the 100 million sharing… wait until they lose more than 10x that in paying customers due to this.
Dear Netflix. We use your services in a legal fashion, paying each month for everyone in our household. It is not for you to decide how often I am home or how often I connect my device to your network from home. If you interfere in any way with my fair and legal use of your service, waste my time dealing with any nonsense, etc, you will be punished by my ceasing to do business with you. P.S. Many families have students in university that are not at home during the school term. They are not required to get local insurance or local health care when they go to school in another province from the one they’re from, as it is understood that they are students temporarily away. I doubt anyone is going to fly home to connect their Netflix device every month, nor are they going to be happy to pay for an extra account. I agree with stopping piracy but you need to more fully understand what you are doing, or you will lose subscribers. You are not the only game in town anymore. –end of rant —.
Furthermore there are people like me working 2-3 weeks a month in another city even country, with wife and children at home watching tv at the same time in different locations, and had I any issue in watching my Netflix account, I would terminate it immediately.
This is a non-problem for you. If you’re working 2-3 weeks a month away from home, then you’re at home 1-2 weeks a month in which you’ll connect to your home Wi-Fi to have your device set as a trusted device…
My mom pays for 2 connections and we only use 2 connections – my mom and I. Only thing is I don’t live at her house, so my Apple TV will end up losing connectivity because of this. I guess I’ll be telling my mom to drop to the cheaper plan and I’ll just pirate what I want. Is that really what Netflix wants? More piracy?