Time to give up your ex-girlfriend’s aunt’s login
With how expensive Netflix has gotten, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that many of its customers share accounts with other users. According to some estimates, 15% of Netflix streamers are actually borrowing a friend’s password to watch the latest binge-worthy original. The company has recently been taking steps to crack down on shared accounts outside of a single household, and it seems like the free ride might be coming to an end.
Netflix is currently testing a couple of new features in Peru, Chile, and Costa Rica, and it sounds like it could become the de facto way to share your account with friends and distant family members. First up, “Add an Extra Member” allows you to add up to two additional accounts to your main Netflix account for a reduced monthly price. These aren’t like traditional profiles — they have their own login, password, and recommendations. These prices range between a $2 or $3 surcharge depending on the region. The second addition lets you transfer your info from a profile to either a full account or one of its new sub-accounts, allowing customers to move to an independent paid profile without losing access to their recommendations.
Basically, both of these features make it easier for you to move to an account you’re going to pay for, probably as preparation for a rougher crackdown on shared logins/passwords. Around a year ago, post-login screens started appearing for some users telling them they needed to live with the account owner to use the service. While these new region-locked features are unlikely to make much of a dent in the current situation, it’s likely the first move to further restrict access to its content through shared logins in the coming months.
Sharing passwords has always been against its terms of service — against section 4.2, to be precise — but the company had never actually made a serious effort to enforce it. That might be about to change.
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