Issued on: 13/03/2021 – 01:12
San Francisco (AFP)
According to US media reports, Netflix tried to tighten its rule against sharing passwords with people who live elsewhere on Friday.
Some Netflix users, who appeared to have accessed other people’s accounts, reached out to Twitter to share news of an obvious course of action, as well as posts with a notice letting them know they must be subscribers in order to continue the service to be able to track.
Netflix has included an offer to test the service free of charge for 30 days. This is evident from a copy posted on Twitter.
“Oh no, Netflix does the purge?” The Twitter user wrote in the post.
Netflix offers to verify who is trying to sign into an account by sending a code to the subscriber via SMS or email to confirm that the user lives with them.
“This test is intended to ensure that people who use Netflix accounts are authorized to do so,” a Netflix spokesman was quoted as saying that the US media such as The Streamable were carrying the news.
It was not certain that testing the account user verification would result in a crackdown on password sharing across the service.
Almost a third of subscribers to TV streaming services like Netflix share their passwords with people who do not live with them. This is the result of a survey by the consulting company Magid from last year.
The practice has long been tolerated by Netflix of California. According to Netflix, there are “guard rails” to prevent extreme abuse when sharing passwords.
People stuck at home due to the pandemic have turned to the internet for entertainment, from streaming television to playing online video games.
By the end of last year, Netflix cemented its leadership position in video sharing by overtaking 200 million paid subscribers worldwide for the first time.
© 2021 AFP
