Deleted Netflix FAQ page reveals possible new details for password sharing crackdown
Netflix may have inadvertently shared new details for its plan to crack down on password sharing, but Canadians don’t need to worry just yet.
On Tuesday, The Streamable reported that the company revealed updated guidelines on how your account should and shouldn’t be shared, referring to a Netflix Help Centre page.
Subscribers have been anticipating an end to password sharing after the streaming giant launched a test that charges primary members a fee for sharing their account with people outside of their household last March.
The “add an extra member” feature has so far been tested in three countries: Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru.
Since then, Netflix has tested many iterations of this fee — an “add a home” alternative as well as an added fee for “borrowers,” or people who use your password but don’t live in your household.
But The Streamable found more specifics on Netflix’s plan on a support page that has since been updated, but can be found on an internet archive page, reported The Verge.
waybackmachine
On the original page found by The Streamable, the FAQ for subscribers in the US stated the following:
“Anyone in your household (those who live with you at your primary location) can use your Netflix account.
“To ensure that your devices are associated with your primary location, connect to the Wi-Fi at your primary location, open the Netflix app or website, and watch something at least once every 31 days.”
Essentially, Netflix accounts can still be shared, but you have to physically be in the same location — or what the company calls the “primary location” — as the people you share it with.
You’ll need to connect to your primary location’s Wi-Fi at least once every month, or you could be blocked, reads the support page.
If you’re travelling, you have to request a temporary code to give you access to Netflix for seven consecutive days.
Naturally, news of this possible plan has subscribers pissed.
Many are pointing out how this would be difficult to pull off for people in varying circumstances — university students who live away from home, long-distance relationships, divorced families, and extended families, to name a few.
this is such a wild decision by Netflix lmao like, they’re aware of long distance relationships, kids in college, and poor people right? pic.twitter.com/ffzqAhwdWb
— Bugs Maytrix 💗🖤💗 (50% off) (@bugsmaytrix) February 1, 2023
This is apparently device-locked, not account-locked, meaning that students living away from home need to lug their Xbox or TV home from the dorm once a month to keep watching. @netflix is about to lose the entire college demographic lol https://t.co/umffppLzr5
— Mike Maynard (@SkullPirateMike) February 1, 2023
netflix managed to piss off *checks notes* college students, divorced families, extended families, just about every fan of every cancelled show, people on vacation ? https://t.co/Mbmuuh1V2I
— . (@mymyatwaterloo) February 1, 2023
However, a Netflix spokesperson told Daily Hive in an email that there was an error on that help centre page, and this plan does not apply to the US or Canada.
“For a brief time yesterday, a help centre article containing information that is only applicable to Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru, went live in other countries. We have since updated it,” stated the spokesperson.
Still, according to Netflix’s Q4 report, it expects “to start rolling out paid sharing more broadly” in the next few months.
The company’s spokesperson did not confirm whether the plan implemented in the test countries will be the same in Canada, but it could be a sneak peek at what’s to come.
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