Netflix will be cracking down on those who share passwords with family and friends

22 October 2019, 14:53

A lot of us share our Netflix passwords with friends and family. Picture: PA

By Mared Parry

If you're guilty of this, then you should make the most of it before Netflix figure a way around it.

There's always that one member of the family or one friend that's a bit of a mug and lets their stingy friends use their Netflix accounts, and those people are the unspoken heroes of 2019.

However, their generosity could come to and end as the Chief Product Officer of Netflix, Greg Peters has recently spoken out about cracking down on those who share passwords.

Password sharing is commonly done by users of the service. Picture: PA

Speaking at Netflix’s Q3 2019 earnings interview last week, he said that Netflix hopes to address password sharing without "alientaing a certain portion of [its] user base."

He explained: “We continue to monitor it so we’re looking at the situation.

"We’ll see those consumer-friendly ways to push on the edges of that.”

The news comes shortly after a tech firm called Synamedia revealed their brand new artificial intelligence system designed to spot those who partake in account sharing.

The system can basically spot shared passwords on streaming services, which would help Netflix out massively - but not its users.

And those spotted could be in trouble, as it means users of the AI service can choose how to deal with 'offender'm and this could be either by making them upgrade to a premium service, or by shutting down their account altogether.

Synamedia revealed the new technology at the CES tech conference in January, where their Chief Product Officer, Jean Marc Racine said: “Casual credentials sharing is becoming too expensive to ignore.

"Our new solution gives operators the ability to take action.

"Many casual users will be happy to pay an additional fee for a premium, shared service.