Sharing your Netflix password with a friend or family member may not have been that big an issue until now, but things may change soon. The world's major OTT platform, with over 200 million subscribers, is now considering ways to curb password sharing for security as well as business reasons.

Netflix is currently testing a new policy with some customers, preventing people from accessing accounts not owned by them. According to a report on CNBC, the online video streaming platform also notifies some users: "If you don’t live with the owner of this account, you need your own account to keep watching."

The report also quoted a spokesman, saying that Netflix tries "hundreds” of tests every year with select customers.

A Netflix spokesperson told The Verge that the test was designed to ensure the ones who use a Netflix account are authorised to do so. If the platform identifies that someone is trying to access an account without really owning it, it may ask them to verify through a code over email or text message on the phone. Failure to verify the account within a certain time period will lead to blocking the streaming service. Netflix will then ask such users to make an account of their own.

According to a research firm, Magid, at least 33 percent of Netflix users have shared their password with at least one other person.

The method may not prevent password-sharing completely but is definitely a step in that direction. The test isn't specific to any particular country or time period and is an effort to ensure better security and account protection.

Greg Peters, the chief product officer, said in 2019 that the company was looking at the issue, but had no "big plans to announce at this time in terms of doing something differently there", reported BBC.

In 2016, during a webcast, Netflix co-founder and chief executive Reed Hastings, too, shed light on the matter.

"Password sharing is something you have to learn to live with because there's so much legitimate password sharing, like you sharing with your spouse, with your kids, so there's no bright line, and we're doing fine as is," he said back then.

(Edited by : Jomy)

First Published:Mar 12, 2021 4:49 PM IST