Netflix Hasn’t Confirmed Its Plans to Stop Password Sharing Just Yet

I’ve always felt that certain companies have a loyal and large enough core consumer base that all they have to do is not royally fuck up, and they’ll retain that base (and thus some level of financial success) forever (Nintendo, Apple, Pixar come to mind for me). Netflix got into that category for a lot of people by being their first streaming service. Most would keep Netflix indefinitely unless they truly find a way to fuck up… and they’re dangerously close to doing it. Their competitors have deep pockets and better IP… Netflix is playing with fire.

 

Especially if whatever policy they come up with couldn't even be effectively implemented. In which case you've generated all this bad PR and bad will with your customers, to still not fix what they perceive as a problem. There's a reason every streaming platform after them tends to permit at least a couple simultaneous users.

 

It's pretty wild that I wouldn't be "allowed" to watch Netflix over my lunch break at work

 

nah, I don’t usually bring my desktop computer home with me

 

They would have to bring their work computer home once a month and connect it to their network or that device would get blocked.

 

This is making the rounds of military news sites as, obviously, a lot of us go away from our home for more than 30 days at a time quite often...

 

my buddy literally canceled yesterday.
https://twitter.com/bfblayk/status/1620898438065061890

 

But that is what it's saying. Signing in at home will ensure it remains your home address for your home devices, but using it at work could result in that device being blocked - due to it not being used at your home address.

 

If Netflix is able to successfully implement this from both a technical standpoint and a business standpoint then other services will follow so I really hope this falls flat on its face.

 

They will probably create some duel factor authentication to alert a push to recognized device just to confirm its accurate. I really dont see the problem with this. Same way with amazon or a credit card company/bank doesn't recognize the device, they just ask you to authenticate.

 

Still obviously a very terrible idea. I'm away from home for much of the year for work (touring), so this'd be untenable for me and many others.

 

This is not what they are planning to do based on the information that has been rolled out. Instead you set a "home base" network and all devices must have their initial logon from that network and check-in every 30 days or be signed out. This raises lots of questions about how people can use their devices when traveling for longer than 30 days, what to do if they are on a military deployment or temporary work assignment (especially with dependents still at home), if they want to use their account on a smart TV at another location, etc. I feel like 2FA confirmation every 30 days would be a much better system because at least it would force logout exes, old friends, and friends of friends who you don't even know have your password.