Netflix Allegedly Stopping People from Sharing Accounts By Implementing 2FA

By
Zhi Hao
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Lest you’re unaware, we are technically not allowed to share Netflix accounts with individuals outside of our own households.

In fact, it is explicitly stated in Netflix’s Terms of Use that your account is for “personal and non-commercial use only and may not be shared with individuals beyond your household,” although I’m about 101% sure you’ve not read even one clause in the Terms of Use.

So all that sharing you have been doing with your family members or roommates who’re out of town?

Well technically it is illegal to do so.

Even so, however, some of us have continued to do so anyway, and it’s a notion emboldened by Netflix Chief Product Manager Neil Hunt himself, who stated that the streaming service is not “obsessed with enforcing compliance with a one-household-per-account constraint.”

So yeah, there is a little bit of leeway there. Thankfully for us, really.

Netflix Allegedly Stopping People from Sharing Accounts By Implementing 2FA

But it appears that those days of treading an invisible line will soon be up.

Though instead of Netflix police cops turning up on your door, you’ll just be punished with the classic 2FA scheme.

According to reports, the streaming service is currently testing a new feature, and it’s an update that does not bode well for most of us.

Apparently, the feature will instil the need for account sharers to stay in the same household.

If not, “free-riding” schemers will have to endeavour with the painstaking processing of creating their own account.

“If you don’t live with the owner of this account, you need your own account to keep watching,” a notice reads.

From the looks of it, the update will require the account user to ascertain their ownership – with a code sent to either their emails or phone.

There is, however, an option to verify later, though we are currently unaware of the exact duration (of the grace period) you will be entitled to.

If there is any consolation, it would be that thus far, only a relatively negligible number of Netflix users have received the message.

So if anything else, we will still have some time left to “mess around” with the login rubrics.

Nevertheless, a Netflix spokesperson has said what we probably least want to hear:

That the test was “designed to ensure that people using Netflix accounts are authorised to do so”.

Well, it has been fun folks…

But it seems that we will no longer be able to escape the cruel cycle of subscriptions fees.

Featured Image: Twitter (@DOP3Sweet)

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Zhi Hao
Email: [email protected]