Netflix news of the day: how it knows if you’ve given your account to “strangers,” what it does about it

Netflix has revealed details of how it plans to tackle account sharing from now on.

This is where users share their login details with someone who lives outside the household.

The streaming giant plans to end password sharing – that’s not news, but let’s see exactly how it’s going to do that.

“When a device outside your household connects to an account or is used persistently, we may ask you to verify that device before it can be used to watch Netflix. We do this to confirm that the device using the account is authorized to do so,” Netflix said.

Users could also be contacted if they haven’t connected to Netflix with a device for more than 31 days.

Frequent travelers could be disadvantaged by Netflix practices

According to sources, this could be “inconvenient” for all customers who primarily use Netflix while traveling.

They will have to remember to connect to Netflix on WiFi from home before they leave, in case they are asked to check their account while traveling.

The device verification process itself doesn’t sound too cumbersome, though it could be annoying when only one person in a household is traveling.

Netflix will email a four-digit verification code to the account owner. Whoever uses the device will enter that code on the device they’re using within 15 minutes.

Consequently, it remains to be seen, of course, what further decisions Netflix will make in the future and how it will manage to “reconcile the goat and the cabbage”, since this decision doesn’t exactly seem like the most inspired of them all.

With so many competitors in the market, the giant is risking quite a bit, considering that people in general these days are constantly looking for ways to make their lives easier, not more complicated.