Netflix’s New Password Sharing Rules (And How to Work Around Them)

Screenshot of the article titled Netflix's New Password Sharing Rules (And How to Work Around Them)

picture: Elliott Coand Jr (Clash)

We knew that this day was coming: Netflix wants you to stop sharing your account with friends and familypreferably These users pay for their own account or not flowing at all. You may have heard about the company’s plans to crack down on such sharing, and even talked about it going to charge each additional user. We are now Learn how the company plans to roll out these changes in the United Statesswhich is slightly different than expected.

We don’t seem to have an exact timeline yet for when these policies will be officially rolled outBut Netflix has updated the Sharing Your Netflix Account Help Center page Detailing how the policy will work.

How does Netflix plan to limit Share the password

In short, Netflix’s new policy is something like this: “A Netflix account is for people who live together in the same household,” like something out of BBible verse. According to the Book of Netflix, anyone who lives outside the home needs their own account. It’s a departure from the password sharing model we’ve heard so far, where Netflix charges a certain amount For each user who logs into an account from outside the home.

Netflix says it uses IP addresses, device IDs, and account activity from devices registered to your Netflix account to determine if a device is streaming indoors or outdoors. He. She. If you are’Re-account holder or Living in the same house as the account holder, you can stream and download Netflix to your heart’s content As long as you have enough screens on your plan. If you don’t, Netflix would like to remind you that they have multiple plans at multiple price points, Like their new advertising plan.

However, Netflix won’t completely prevent you from watching on an account outside of home. Even if you don’t try to share an account, the travel is still there, and it would be an insult to customers if they couldn’t watch Weird things from their hotel room. here Netflix Policy Watch outside your home base: If you’re using a device connected to your home wifi to watch Netflix, you should have no problem using it while you’re away. Watch a show on your iPad at home, and it should be smooth sailing when you get to your account on vacation.

How to get around Netflix’s “home base” password restrictions

According to Netflix’s US instructions, it seems like it’s pretty easy to stream on devices that have never connected the household’s wifi. If you try to watch on, say, your smart TV outside of the account holder’s house, you will initiate a prompt to verify that device. The account holder will receive a four-digit code to their email or phone number, and you must enter that code on your device within 15 minutes. If you do, your device will be verified as part of the household, and you should be good to go.

Netflix seems to regard this process as necessary for household members who are traveling outside the home base for too long. However, it’s a pretty obvious loophole for people who want to use someone else’s account as they do now. Periodically verifying devices is probably worth more than an individual Netflix subscription to a lot of people.

Netflix could crackdown harder on US customers in the future

Don’t get too excited, though. Netflix might make things more difficult than that in the future. In Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru, Netflix requires you to sign into Netflix on the household wifi once every 31 days. Otherwise, that device will be blocked from service until it reconnects to your home wifi. This makes it difficult to share accounts when people don’t live near each other, and almost impossible on existing devicesn’laptop t. Sure, you can log into Netflix on a laptop or tablet when you visit your parents, but are you going to hook up your smart TV at home, too?

It’s not clear if this policy is making its way to the US either: Netflix is ​​currently testing other policies in these countries, including charging for password sharing, so we may or may not see a policy shift in the future.

However, if the US Help Center page is to be believed, these changes are yet to appear. For those of us who want to keep sharing accounts outside of our homes, it’s still pretty easy to do, assuming you don’t mind your friends and family sending you, “Hey, what’s your Netflix code?”

Leave a Comment