The days of using your parent’s Netflix account might be coming to an end. As noted by GammaWire (and confirmed by the Hollywood Reporter), the streaming service is sending warnings to certain users who are using an account that isn’t recognized as their own. “This test is designed to help ensure that people using Netflix accounts are authorized to do so – both by the member who owns the account and under our Terms of Service,” a spokesperson said. If the warning does pop, users are given two options:
In order to continue watching, the viewer [can] either verify their identity (with a texted or emailed code to the account’s owner), or opt to “verify later,” which gives the viewer an unspecified additional amount of time to continue watching and later confirm they are a valid account user.
If you don’t get the code, you don’t get to continue watching Russian Doll.
In 2016, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings called password sharing a “positive thing” and “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 is still doing fine (it recently passed 200 million subscribers), but with more competition now than there was in 2016, password sharing is a thornier issue. Won’t somebody please think of the broke college kids?
(Via GammaWire and the Hollywood Reporter)
