It looks like the gig might be up. Netflix is going to try and clamp down on password sharing. My family shares a Netflix account but we live in 3 different places and share the costs. Will you continue if you have to pay for Netflix and not share? I don’t watch it that much and would think about dropping it.
I’m not sure how this will work for them. H set up our account years ago so his email is attached to the account. So if I go watch it and H is not around to check his email then I’m going to be able to get into the account? This method of verification assumes each individual has their own account.
I know. The email attached is my daughter’s but she doesn’t use this account anymore as they share her boyfriend’s parents account. Rather than switching emails, I pay for the account and send a Venmo request to my sister and niece. None of us wanted to switch up the log in.
It says up to 10 devices, maybe that’s Disney+, which we also share. But same idea.
The article says accounts “may not be shared with individuals beyond your household.”
I am suspecting that they are referring to our physical home.
“My family shares a Netflix account but we live in 3 different places and share the costs.”
This sounds very familiar, except for us “share the costs” means “parents pay”. It is probably fairly normal that kids who grow up and go off to university, then settle in their own homes, still use their parent’s accounts. I could see this meaning that some families with one multi-user account might need to instead go with multiple single-user accounts. On the other hand, if they verify that you are really part of the family by sending a text code to the cell phone we could cooperate with each other and share the code from a distance.
We did need at one point to change passwords to cut off a former boyfriend from using our account (a good and responsible former boyfriend). This might push back on this practice.
In principle we could switch from Netflix to Hulu or something else. Going back to commercial TV is a complete non-starter. There are just too many advertisements on commercial TV. To me it is not watchable except for Super Bowls and the evening news.
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I use Netflix quite a bit. Three of us current share. I’ll continue to pay for it. Was there a date for crackdown??
I saw this today as well and sent quick Uh Oh note to my kids. This is the response I got from Goskid 2:
"No issues with us - we aren’t password sharing. We have separate profiles within Netflix (completely legal in the eyes of Netflix at this time).
This would be if you shared your password with us for an account that didn’t have separate profiles and we were all watching things under the “Mom” profile."
fwiw…
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I’ll add that I’d rather just pay a little more for some limited sharing - like 3 devices where ever. Sort of like how our phones are on a family plan (also our Spotify account family plan). If three of us split a family plan that would surely be cheaper than 3 separate accounts.
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I’d keep it. Love Netflix.
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To enforce this, they would have to set in features which would make the service lot less attractive. Part of the reason that people subscribe to Netflix is that they can take the service with them as they travel. Any limitations that Netflix has would make this almost impossible, since it would either limit the service to specific devices or ISPs. Since one of their selling points has been the ability to move between devices, and the use of VPNs is increasing, doing either of these puts them in danger to losing out to similar services that do not set up these limitations.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that Netflix won’t do it. History is full of corporate “leaders” who enacted policies that caused them to lose money because they had absolutely no understanding of their costumer base, or because they tended to think locally instead of globally (“our profits are being limited because of this policy, so let’s change it, and not make sure that this policy isn’t important in the overall success of the product”).
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Assuming it’s a verification code this wouldn’t be an impediment to sharing with my kids. I always have my phone nearby or in hand and when verification codes have come in from other places I can easily push the verification button or forward a code to them. If I were trying to share with some random friend it would be different as they may not want to bug me. But for family no big deal.
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We are always sending text back and forth with verification codes. My daughter will text and say, hurry, I need the code right now!!
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@snowball. Lol. That’s exactly how it is here!
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Here too and everyone can get into H’s and my email if they had to. They are just generic Gmail accounts that we use for ordering, admin stuff. Nothing personal really.
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My daughter pays a little extra for Netflix so that 3 users are allowed (we are one of them). That should still be OK I would imagine?
That’s good to know. There are 4 in our family, each of us have our own viewing station.(for lack of a better word, account makes it seems like you set up a separate account to pay). So, this will continue to work if this is the case?
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When we log into Netflix, a screen comes on with an icon for wife and I, and one for each kid. We click on ourselves and all of our lists, etc come up. I don’t think this is what Netflix is talking about in terms of their crackdown, as we pay for this multiple user thing. We aren’t living in the same house.
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The number of active streams is limited. They are already limiting sharing. We will just drop them since we don’t watch much if they institute a verification code or require additional payment for different addresses