Netflix Seems To Be Backtracking On Those Password Sharing Rules
In 2022, Netflix's Christmas gift for everyone was the promise to start cracking down on password sharing. The streaming giant's stated mission is to track and charge viewers who are sharing their password, in a controversial policy that they recognize will quite likely be unpopular. The initial way Netflix will try to keep you from sharing passwords is apparently the requirement that all devices that use the same credentials will have to use the same Wi-Fi on occasion, and the devices that fail this scrutiny will have to pony up.
Of course, there's no way to know what other methods of controlling credential-sharing Netflix is cooking up, and the total situation is still very much unfolding. Still, there seems to be at least some hope on the horizon for the password sharers who have been furiously trying to figure out ways to continue their binge-watching ways. According to recent information, Netflix might be backtracking on their password sharing policy.
Netflix posted and swiftly removed their new rules about password sharing
Yeah, those rules about password sharing that's tied to monthly Wi-Fi network verification? Per The Streamable, that's not a thing anymore in the U.S., and if you ask Netflix, the whole thing was only ever supposed to roll out in a handful of South American countries. The information simply ended up posted on the U.S. site in error.
"For a brief time yesterday, a help center article containing information that is only applicable to Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru, went live in other countries," a Netflix spokesperson stated on February 1. "We have since updated it."
Not everyone believes that mistakes were made when the streamer posted the new rules. Journalist Kendall Baker pointed out on Twitter that the swift removal of the policy from their U.S. help center might be Netflix's reaction to negative feedback. "Update: Netflix is now claiming they 'errantly' posted this information (translation: they saw the feedback and pumped the brakes)," he wrote.
This is unlikely to be the last word on the subject of Netflix's quest against password sharing. As always, Looper will keep you informed of the latest developments in the situation.