Here's How Netflix Is Now Cracking Down On Password Sharing

Netflix is testing ways to stop customers from sharing the service they purchased with people living outside the paying subscriber’s home.

Kristin Palpini

03/13/2021 11:30 a.m.

In some markets, including Australia, Netflix interrupts streaming on home televisions where there is no registered user.

When Netflix detects this, the screen turns black with a couple of white print sentences including:

“If you don’t live with the owner of this account, you need your own account to keep watching.”

The streaming video service is offering new customers a free 30-day trial.

For years streaming services such as Netflix and HBO Max have let people share their passwords with whomever, though, in the technical terms of customers’ contracts account passwords can only be used by in-home residents.

Netflix’s experiment is likely the start in a wave of password-sharing crackdowns. About 35 percent of millennials share passwords for streaming, according to The Streamable. “With Disney Plus, Apple TV Plus, HBO Max, and Peacock all competing for subscribers — every additional sub just means more revenue for streaming services,” the publication said.

For now, the crackdown only applies to in-home televisions. Password-sharing on mobile devices may continue unabated.

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