On February 1, Netflix first announced drastic measures against account sharing. With a revised help and FAQ page, it was announced that sharing an account can be punished with account suspensions in the future. The company also announced that it would monitor account sharing by setting a home location. A few hours later, Netflix rowed back.
Tough measures against account sharing announced
It has long been illegal to share one’s Netflix account with people outside one’s household. However, Netflix has not prosecuted such violations so far. On a help page, the company rather showed that it did not attach great importance to compliance with the policy: there, it was still said last year “In itself, Netflix is always intended for only one household. But no one adheres to it anyway”.
The company’s policy in this regard has changed significantly in recent months. So Netflix announced some time ago to stop sharing accounts. In some countries, such measures are already being enforced. Anyone who wants to continue sharing their account must pay a surcharge there. In this country, too, account sharing is to be prevented. When exactly Netflix will introduce the measures in Germany, however, is not known.
On February 1, the day initially seemed very close. Thus, Netflix changed its help page in this regard significantly. It was announced that the IP addresses of accounts will be logged in the future in order to recognize a main location. Devices outside the main location have to be verified in order to use the service. If Netflix detects frequent parallel streaming from different households, it can block the account in question.
Netflix rows back: no penalties for account sharing
The company then rowed back just a few hours later. The help page was revised again – and the most important new passages were deleted in the process. Thus, the page now no longer talks about bans as a punishment for account sharing. Only the announced verification requirement for devices used outside the main location remains.
Whether Netflix will actually take comprehensive action against account sharing remains uncertain. The only thing that is clear is that numerous users would be affected. A considerable part of the streams comes from the unauthorized sharing of access. It is anything but certain that all users who do not yet have a subscription will sign up for paid access. A massive loss of streams, on the other hand, would be counterproductive for Netflix.
No replies yet
Neue Antworten laden...
Gehört zum Inventar
Beteilige dich an der Diskussion in der Basic Tutorials Community →