No More Sharing! Netflix Cracks Down On Password Sharing In India — Find Out What’s Changed

Online streaming giant Netflix announced on Thursday that it plans on curbing the practice of password sharing in India. It will impose stricter rules to narrow down the use of the Netflix account to one household. The company plans on cracking down on the number of Netflix freeloaders by managing the password-sharing regulations of the app. The online streaming platform will mostly be using IP addresses, device IDs and the activities of the account to restrict the usage of one account to a single household. Netflix’s new password-sharing rules ensure that one account can only be used within a single household that shares one internet connection.

To facilitate sharing within a family, the Transfer Profile feature of Netflix comes into play, allowing account access at home or during vacations. To comply with these rules, Netflix permits users to log in to the account from outside the primary household using access codes, which remain valid for up to seven days. However, users are required to connect to the primary household’s Wi-Fi or internet connection at least once every 31 days.

If someone tries to access the account from outside the household then that person will be asked to create a new account with a different profile.

To everyone’s surprise, Netflix has not introduced the member addition feature in India. This feature allows the addition of the member to the primary household account with extra charges. Netflix has decided to not offer this option as it has already cut down the subscription charges in these nations. Another reason behind this decision is its low market penetration of Netflix in India, said the company as reported by Tech Crunch.

The company will use the information gained from IP addresses, device IDS and other activities to determine whether the device is a part of the household or not.

Previously, Netflix introduced this policy in some major markets such as US, and UK. Then, it amassed 5.9 million new subscribers worldwide. The company faced its biggest downfall in the first quarter of 2022 when it lost nearly 200,000 subscribers.