Netflix adopts new policy to prevent password sharing

Netflix announced that if customers share an account with someone outside their family, they will have to pay an additional fee of about 8 USD / month.

In an email sent to its users, Netflix announced that people in the same household can continue to share a Netflix account and be able to watch on multiple devices while traveling.

But for customers who share accounts with people outside the family, they will have to pay an additional 8 USD / month (about 188,000 VND).

Notification emails are sent to 103 countries, including the US, UK, France, Germany, Australia, Singapore, ..

The new policy also states that customers who subscribe to the Netflix Standard plan for $15.49/month can add up to one non-family member for an additional $8/month. Users who subscribe to the $19.99 4K Premium plan can add up to two non-family members, and each will also be charged $8/month.

Additional members will enjoy many of the same benefits as regular customers, including their own profiles, accounts and passwords.

Netflix says the company will use information such as IP addresses, device IDs, and account activity to determine if the device signed into the account belongs to the Netflix household.

Similar to other streaming services, Netflix at one point turned a blind eye to password sharing, even encouraging users to share in late 2017.

However, the gradual loss of registered users for nearly a decade, forced Netflix to change its policy and study how to prevent password sharing by 2022.

Netflix previously experimented with charging subscribers to add homes in several South American countries before expanding to Canada, New Zealand, Portugal, and Spain earlier this year. More than 1 million Spanish users left the service due to the new rules, although Netflix said the decline was temporary before users got their own accounts.