Netflix’s attempts to stop password sharing are allegedly confusing for customers in Peru – one of the countries where it’s testing the feature before it begins to roll out across the world.
The new feature was supposed to prompt users to pay an additional fee if it appeared that a Netflix account was being used in a household separate from the account holder. The costs of the ‘extra members’ are priced at around £2.30/$2.99 when converted, and the feature is also being tested in Costa Rica and Chile.
Rest of World claims to have spoken to over a dozen Netflix subscribers in Peru. They reported not being officially informed about the new policy change by email or another form of official direct communication.
In addition, the feature itself has proven to be widely inconsistent. Some users were able to ignore the prompt to add a new user without incurring any penalty fee, whilst others did not receive the feature at all and continued to password share without any changes being made to the account.
A few months ago, we reported that Netflix may have trouble enforcing this feature if a member of a household is streaming from another location, such as a friend’s house, a hotel, or an office.
This issue has now come to fruition, with an anonymous customer representative reporting to have been told by bosses to give out verification codes to members of households who are streaming from a separate location outside of the home.
Of course, there is no way for a Netflix employee to prove whether the person is telling the truth or not – so they could still be handing out free codes to a password sharer.
A Netflix spokesperson gave the following quote to Business Insider on the incidents: “The millions of members who are actively sharing an account in these countries have been notified by email but given the importance of this change, we are ramping up in-product notifications more slowly. We’re pleased with the response to date”.
Netflix has not confirmed when it will be rolling out the password sharing crackdown to the rest of the world, but there are some major improvements that need to be made before this goes global.
The attempt to limit password sharing is something that has been coming for a long time. Netflix has forecast a loss of two million subscribers in Q2, and consequently has cancelled multiple projects and has made mass layoffs across many teams, including the relatively new editorial venture, Netflix Tudum.
This all started to spiral after Netflix increased its prices, with the Premium Plan now sitting at a cost of £15.99/$19.99 per month.
The platform has also accelerated the launch of its cheaper ad-supported plan, with the hope for it to be available by the end of the year. This will make it go head-to-head with a similar plan that is being launched by Netflix rival, Disney+.
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Author: Hannah Cowton, Senior Staff Writer
Hannah Cowton is a Senior Staff Writer at Tech Advisor and Macworld, working across entertainment, consumer technology and lifestyle. Her interests and specialities lie in streaming services, film and television reviews and rumours, gaming, wearables and smart home products. She's also the creator of The London Geek, a geek culture and lifestyle blog.