Netflix Starts Cracking Down on Account Sharing with New Policy

Netflix has started cracking down on customers who share their accounts with others. In a mail the American streaming service explains that customers have to pay an extra 3.99 per month if someone watches via their account.

Sharing an account password is not allowed under the terms of the service, but was tolerated by Netflix for years. The company even posted a tweet encouraging password sharing in the past. Earlier this year, the streaming service announced that a change in policy was coming.

The company now looks at the main location of a customer where they look. It looks at IP addresses, ID numbers of devices and account activity. If structurally viewed at other locations, a message will appear stating that the device is not part of the Netflix household and viewing will be blocked.

It is estimated that more than a third of Dutch Netflix users share their account with others. With this new policy, Netflix hopes that some of these viewers will start paying monthly.

The company has also started the new policy to prevent sharing in other countries. Previously, a trial was conducted in Canada and Latin America, among others. In some countries, Netflix first saw the number of customers decline after the announcement, but then the company had more paying customers on balance.

Competing streaming services have also banned account sharing in their terms, but those companies have not disclosed concrete plans to enforce it.