My family shares our Netflix account. We live in different states, but all in the United States.
I used it yesterday and it was fine. But today it was not. I got the “you are not part of this household” message, with the three options being:
- make your own account
- make this location the household location
- I’m traveling
I watch a lot of random stuff, but mostly on different services. So, while it’s kind of a bummer to uninstall Netflix, I have plenty of options. It’s moreso just depressing that the enshittification has finally hit North America. Will probably see more of this stuff around on the internet soon, as I’m guessing I just got my number pulled before most people (which is doubly depressing since this we’ve had Netflix since like 2005 or something and were strong advocates of it when linear tv was still dominant - THAT’S CAPITALISM FOR YA!~)
Are you really that surprised netflix is finally enforcing its terms of service?
In a March 10, 2017, Twitter thread that was promoting its original series Love, Netflix wrote, “Love is sharing a password.” The single tweet in the thread garnered more than 15,000 likes and more than 4,600 retweets.
in 2016 Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said that consumers sharing Netflix account information was “a positive thing.” Hastings explained at CES that people who share someone else’s Netflix account often go on to become paying subscribers themselves at a later date, CNET reported. “We love people sharing Netflix whether they’re two people on a couch or 10 people on a couch,” Hastings said. “That’s a positive thing, not a negative thing.”
I think people are surprised that the abilities of the service they signed up for have changed. Are you surprised people have a problem with Netflix simply having those terms of service?
Can you provide a source that indicates that Netflix’s account sharing was ever encouraged beyond a single household? My understanding is netlix has always been pro-sharing as long as all users that share a password are within the same household.
The original tweet
I understand that they’ve said that, and I’ll re-iterate, as far as I’m aware Netflix’s password sharing policy has always been for individuals living in the same household.
@Saganastic
@SCmSTR @bazus1 @SaltySalamander
When I ran into issues with too many people trying to stream at once, I had to upgrade to the most premium subscription which allows 4 simultaneous streams. Whether it was a black letter rule or not, the “more money for more simultaneous streams” policy goes hand in hand with shared accounts. How many households are going to need to simultaneously stream 4 different Netflix streams at the same time? Not to mention other oddities.
they just developed the profile transfer feature alongside the password sharing crackdown. Previously, they supposedly didn’t want people in different households to share an account, but had no solution for if you left a household.
this gives a strong preference to households over families, which is not how other internet services work. When you send your kid to college, each year they need to make a new shared Netflix account with whichever roommate they have, and even mid-year if their roommates change. They can’t share with their own parents. Imagine if cellphone family plans worked that way?
why did they stop advertising that premium plans increase the number of people who can watch simultaneously? When I go to select a plan on Netflix right now, it’s now religsted to a footnote. It used to be a prominent feature. It would seem to me that they are aware how counter-intuitive and misleading it is to advertise the amount of simultaneous streams your allowed when it’s already limited to household members.
Considering they did not while the profits were good, you can expect someone to reasonably assume that it might never change