You may soon no longer be able to share your Netflix user name and password between separate households because Netflix may be cracking down on password sharing soon.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS:
- Netflix is currently testing this.
- It may ultimately cancel the feature.
- 54% of subscribers share their accounts.
- Streamers lose billions to password sharing and piracy.
This is (currently) just a test
Netflix has been testing ways to curb password sharing on its platform, with a new test specifically created to prevent password sharing between members of separate households.
People included in the test see a warning message that they’re not living with the account holder when attempting to log into the service using that account holder’s credentials.
“If you don’t live with the owner of this account, you need your own account to keep watching,” reads the warning message. Besides, the user is greeted with a prompt asking them to verify their account credentials or sign up for their own Netflix subscription.
“This test is designed to help ensure that people using Netflix accounts are authorized to do so,” a Netflix spokesperson told The Streamable.
The fine print
The current Netflix terms permit password sharing with members of the same household
The Netflix service and any content viewed through our service are for your personal and non-commercial use only and may not be shared with individuals beyond your household.
The test appears to be currently limited to TV devices that support the Netflix app.
This is nothing new
Many other companies have security measures in place to prevent password sharing. The YouTube Premium Family subscription, for example, allows up to five different accounts to share access to YouTube Premium as long as they’re on the same local Wi-Fi network.
→ How to use Netflix parents controls
You and I may dislike the practice, but preventing password sharing is a legitimate business interest for streamers because those companies have lost a whopping $9 billion to password sharing and piracy alone, according to analysis from Parks Associates.
A recent survey found that 54 percent of Netflix subscribers have or are sharing their account passwords with other people. And back in August 2018, research firm Magid measured that 35 percent of millennials did share passwords for streaming, as reported by CNBC.