SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. – Popular video streaming service Netflix is reported to have been testing new tools to prevent account sharing.
In the trial, a small selection of accounts have been prompted: ‘If you don’t live with the owner of this account, you need your own account to keep watching’. For now, the prompted message can be ignored for some time.
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When the users opt to verify their account, they are required to enter a verification code which is received to the original account holder.
Netflix has been aware of the password sharing among friends and family for years. A research showed thirty three-percent of users have shared their passwords.
“Password sharing is something you have to learn to live with, because there’s so much legitimate password sharing—like you sharing with your spouse, with your kids…. so there’s no bright line, and we’re doing fine as is,” Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said in 2016.
“This test is designed to help ensure that people using Netflix accounts are authorised to do so,” said a Netflix spokesperson.
The streamer’s terms of service say accounts “may not be shared with individuals beyond your household.”
The streaming giant has urged users to obtain their own accounts in order to enjoy uninterrupted services.
Netflix users can subscribe for a Basic, Standard, or Premium plan, which supports streaming on one, two, and four devices respectively, at the same time.
