r/technology • u/chrisdh79 • Feb 03 '23

Netflix says strict new password sharing rules were posted in error Business

https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/02/03/netflix-says-strict-new-password-sharing-rules-were-posted-in-error
16.5k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

1.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

479

u/kirlie Feb 03 '23

My partner and I we talking about this when I first heard about it. We can't figure out how it would work even just for our household. If we are only allowed one home location, what happens when we watch Netflix at work during breaks? We can't reasonably bring the breakroom TV home to connect to our WiFi. What about if we're on vacation for longer than a week? This plan doesn't seem very well thought out.

286

u/DiscombobulatedElk93 Feb 03 '23

We travel full time in an rv for work, we don’t have a “home” Wi-Fi. We’re between 4-5 states all year and use hot spot and park Wi-Fi. We won’t be able to use Netflix anymore.

124

u/kirlie Feb 03 '23

This would be the case for alot of retirees. I live in South Texas, Winter Texans are here for about 4-5 months out of the year. I could see this causing alot of issues for them.

15

u/DiscombobulatedElk93 Feb 03 '23

We just haven’t found a reliable actual hotspot, so we use our phones when we can’t use park Wi-Fi but I’m not sure phone hotspots count. But people with starlink or such might be ok. But at this point Netflix isn’t worth it we share with family and I can even remember when the last time I watched it was besides Wednesday. So I’m not really upset if we all cancel. Between friends and fam we have access to every other one, we all just pay for one and share.

-1

u/stephruvy Feb 03 '23

Nah you'll just need 2 accounts now for ~~ twice the fun~~ the exact same thing

16

u/Throwawayaccount_047 Feb 03 '23

Netflix is built into every Tesla out there too. How the fuck did they plan to reconcile with that? Am I supposed to send them an email a week before I go for a drive?

Fuck Netflix. I will cancel at the end of the month now regardless of what they do.

4

u/cookiesarenomnom Feb 03 '23

My parents are snowbirds, they live in Florida for the winter. They were very pissed about this yesterday.

3

u/gpg2556 Feb 03 '23

Not on Netflix side but their now ~deleted~ FAQ said that if the primary user was traveling, he/she would be able to approve their device for use for 7 days outside their wifi.

They did not say if you were able to apply for another code once those 7 days end.

Pretty shitty practice. My fam pays for 4 simultaneous streams, netflix should give a shit where we watch it

2

u/DiscombobulatedElk93 Feb 04 '23

Yeah doubtful that we’d be able to that every week and also inconvenient for something we pay for. So stupid not worth it anymore

2

u/aliveinjoburg2 Feb 03 '23

IIRC if you applied for the 7 days again, you’d be banned.

2

u/Devium92 Feb 04 '23

Don't worry, just call this Customer Service line to get a one time use code to allow you to use it not at your "home WIFI" location. But you'll have to sit in "Hold Hell" for about 2 hours, longer than whatever thing you wanted to actually watch, so now you've wasted all that time for nothing, and you didn't even get to watch the show/movie you wanted!

1

u/pieter1234569 Feb 04 '23

You would be asked to…..enter a 4 digit code every week.

1

u/DiscombobulatedElk93 Feb 04 '23

Someone else said you cannot do the code weeks in a row

1

u/pieter1234569 Feb 04 '23

But that wouldn’t make any sense at all. This approach already works fantastically well.

The point is to make sharing a hassle. If everybody needs to text you every week then at first you may forward it, but after a while you will get sick of it. At the same time, it’s also annoying to have to wait when you just want to watch something.

So it annoys paying customers into not sharing and it annoys leeching people from not asking, as they don’t want to wait.

Now you could always share the login information to an e-mail account, but that’s also doing work. Extra work. The best solution would be using a phone number though. You can’t bypass it, and for the primary user there is no difference.

1

u/DiscombobulatedElk93 Feb 04 '23

But is this what they said they are doing or just what they should do?

28

u/Nya7 Feb 03 '23

I mean this is how hulu liveTV already works. Yes, it’s a horrible service

8

u/TheWarriorsLLC Feb 03 '23

Yea, thats liveTV... not on demand content.

2

u/BigEarl139 Feb 04 '23

Except it works that way for their on demand content if you have liveTV. It’s exactly what Netflix was trying to implement here for about $90 a month at this point. Can only change home locations 3 times on the account permanently.

8

u/RavenWolf1 Feb 03 '23

And in our country there is really high usage of mobile data because it is unlimited. Many younger people watch Netflix from their phones. Our country has also very high VPN usage. Netflix has no realistic way to make this work without pissing off their customers.

5

u/sushisection Feb 03 '23

im very curious how these restrictions will work for mobile data.

5

u/Woogity Feb 04 '23

It would be a customer service nightmare for them, on top of burning goodwill. If they go through with this, they will earn what’s coming to them.

4

u/tommygunz007 Feb 03 '23

Ultimately each device will have to have it's own password and some kind of account associated with it. As each device has it's own tracked IP address/serial number, every device will need to pay. So if you have 10 devices you pay for 10 devices (same account). So it will be a flat rate of $5 + $1.75 for each device. I don't see any other way this can work for them.

0

u/sushisection Feb 03 '23

they limit you to only 4 devices. anything above 4 will require a separate account.

5

u/bdone2012 Feb 03 '23

You would have needed to watch something from your home network once a week. If you didn’t you’d have to approve the location once a week by text message. And then after a month if you didn’t watch something at your home network you’d have been kicked off until you went home.

I was pretty pissed because I’m currently away from home longer than a month.

4

u/sushisection Feb 03 '23

they still will not be able to watch at work because its a different location.

7

u/per08 Feb 03 '23

Two-factor authentication, probably. When they detect you're in a new place, they ping your attached phone number or email address with an authentication code to enter.

2

u/tomtheimpaler Feb 04 '23

Yeah i asked them directly (on an account subscribed in the UK), and its a mix of using the "home IP", and if you dont you get random 2fa checks - they couldn't tell me how often that would be.

But not once whilst explaining how it would work did they say it doesn't apply to my country

2

u/NotRoryWilliams Feb 04 '23

For $99.99 I’d be happy to sell you a portable hotspot bridge that matches the SSID and password of your home router and can bridge it to your cell phone hotspot. With a $10 optional software add on it can provide a VPN that routes traffic through your home IP address no matter where you are.

I of course don’t actually have that device but it would be very easy to build and market with off the shelf components.

1

u/Euler007 Feb 03 '23

Probably doesn't trigger until active in two places at once.

-17

u/MajesticAlbatross864 Feb 03 '23

You only have to connect to to ur home network once every 30 days so would be no issues doing any of that

10

u/BluFenderStrat07 Feb 03 '23

It sounds like they use the TV in their break room at work

How are they going to take that company property home once per month to log into their home Wi-Fi?

3

u/Seaniard Feb 03 '23

Your didn't read their comment.

1

u/TheMonDon Feb 04 '23

They bring the TV from work to home??

1

u/Diegobyte Feb 04 '23

You just have to check in occasionally. That’s how YouTube tv works. I gave it to my buddy and then he got blocked after 60 or 90 days or something.

1

u/nekobash Feb 04 '23

I'm assuming IP address is a partial misnomer here - IP Address is a term most people recognize so they're throwing it around. Not that it WON'T be used, but likely an IP address/MAC address combo will be picked apart to make some kind of fuzzy device/network list. Devices checking in from the most used ip address and / or the most used devices won't be scrutinized as much.

Still stupid.

1

u/StonerMetalhead710 Feb 04 '23

It’s possible to make your own private VPN server. Quite difficult though

1

u/MimiMyMy Feb 04 '23

I was wondering the same thing. My brother in law watches at home and at work. He has a lot of down time at his job. If he’s paying for the service and he’s the only one using it but now he’s only allowed to use it at his house only. How does Netflix think that’s even going to fly in this day and age of mobility.

1

u/RxDuchess Feb 04 '23

I have two routers in my house so I can get full coverage does this mean if I decide to watch it in bed it’ll count as another house using it? There are so many flaws in this

1

u/purple_hamster66 Feb 04 '23

The rules that don’t apply in the US stated that users can get temporary pass for a device that’s outside your home wifi.

-13

u/pm_me_your_buttbulge Feb 03 '23 edited Feb 04 '23

If we are only allowed one home location, what happens when we watch Netflix at work during breaks?

They explained this in the previous articles - which is why I don't think this was a "mistake".

We can't reasonably bring the breakroom TV home to connect to our WiFi.

Are you planning on literally living in your break room for more than week straight? If not, then it's not a problem?

What about if we're on vacation for longer than a week?

They explain this.

edit: I forgot Reddit only reads titles.

4

u/Seaniard Feb 03 '23

You didn't understand the comment or the issue.

-1

u/sushisection Feb 03 '23

here are the explanations:

buy a new account for the breakroom tv at work

buy a new account if you plan on being on vacation for more than a week.

-33

u/inb4wtf Feb 03 '23

The thing is, speculating on how they will detect or not detect password sharing is pointless. If you’re not sharing passwords then you should have nothing to worry about, let Netflix worry about the details and complain later if they fuck up the implementation and your service is interrupted.

But if secretly you do share the password, I’m talking to you Reddit, then by all means tell me all about your 1% edge cases that the idiots at Netflix who never heard of RV life or VPNs will prevent you from giving Netflix your money to pay for content that you enjoy - I’m sure there’s no technical solution to that and Netflix will lose so much money they regret enforcing this long standing policy against password sharing because they’re so dumb. /s

14

u/wompwompwomp69420 Feb 03 '23

In IT, edge cases when not handles properly become a huge problem for everyone (customer service, IT, impacts sales) by not dealing with edge cases you are banking on losing their business

-7

u/inb4wtf Feb 03 '23

My point was that Netflix devs are not idiots, they’ve heard of RV life and VPNs, people are speculating they haven’t thought of these edge cases prematurely before any service disruption in what appears to be an online campaign to delay or prevent the inevitable rollout concentrating mostly on speculative false positive detection of password sharing which for the most part has easy technical solutions.

I suspect many people just don’t like that they can’t password share on a service to save money on a service that they would otherwise like to keep but don’t want to pay full price for.

7

u/Charlielx Feb 03 '23

My point was that Netflix devs are not idiots

That's not the problem, devs are almost never a problem. The real problems come as you start approaching the c-suite

7

u/fffangold Feb 03 '23

The edge cases are people's way of saying Netflix is gonna fuck this up. (For those who don't have legitimate edge cases and worry about how this will effect them.) And frankly, people are pissed because Netflix used to encourage password sharing, and used to sell the product as a number of screens you could use at once anywhere, instead of limiting it by location in addition to number of screens. So they have changed the product offering, making it a worse deal for the same money. While also already offering a worse selection of movies and shows than they used to for the same money.

Essentially, because they are losing money, they are making the service worse and somehow imagining that will bring in more money for them. And anyone with common sense can tell you that offering a worse product for the same amount of money is a fast way to piss off your customers and drive them to the competition.

-6

u/inb4wtf Feb 03 '23

Now you’re trying to predict the future effectiveness of the single household detection, which remains to be seen. It’s not rocket science to design an algorithm that would minimize false positive detection on legit single households. Wait till they fuck it up before you get pissed.

Meanwhile, who gives a shit they once encouraged something to increase user adoption. If you don’t like that you can’t give your password to a friend or family member so they can get the service for free, then by all means complain and don’t patronize the shitty service who doesn’t let you share your shit.

But don’t side step disguising your real issue as though maybe crappy hypothetical solution may interrupt a legit single house hold “reducing the quality of the service” unless you happen to know the devs and they are actually stupid.

Your problem is that you want to use a single password in multiple households, OK?

6

u/fffangold Feb 03 '23

Ok, let's make this simple.

Meanwhile, who gives a shit they once encouraged something to increase user adoption.

I do, for one. And clearly a lot of other people do too based on the reaction on this thread and elsewhere on the internet. At one time, password sharing was an authorized feature of having multiple screens.

But don’t side step disguising your real issue as though maybe crappy hypothetical solution may interrupt a legit single house hold “reducing the quality of the service” unless you happen to know the devs and they are actually stupid.

It is reducing the quality of the service. Password sharing used to be a feature. Now it is not. Less features for the same price means the quality has been reduced.

Your problem is that you want to use a single password in multiple households, OK?

You're damn right that's my problem! I said as much in the post you're replying to! This isn't a gotcha. It's literally what I'm saying. They offered password sharing as a feature of multiple screens, and it was permitted to use those screens in multiple households. Now it's not permitted. That is the problem.

And you know what? I absolutely think Netflix is gonna fuck up the edge cases. I've seen this shit so many times it's a near guarantee in my mind. That isn't my personal issue with what Netflix is doing, but I'm sure as shit happy to point it out because I'm mad at them about the password sharing thing. And no, I'm not giving them the benefit of the doubt, because they're already actively intending to fuck up a feature I use. They don't get the benefit of the doubt. I'm going to voice my displeasure and the ways I think they'll fuck it up and make shitloads of noise until they fix it or they lose my family as a subscriber if they actually go through with it.

3

u/inb4wtf Feb 03 '23

You got me, I was generalizing on other commenters. I agree being pissed about password sharing not being allowed is one thing and taking your business elsewhere is a logical conclusion. It’s the constant stream of “but what about such and such…” let’s all worry less about false positive password sharing detection, and more about the policy change itself. I mean the devs can figure it out if that’s the way it’s gotta be, it’s not rocket science. It reeks of dishonest misdirection to me (though not on your part obviously!)

-5

u/len43 Feb 03 '23

You're right, it's not well thought out and that's why they are walking it back. I think it would be a better idea to have a certain number of "registered" devices outside your home network that never have to connect back home. So if you register your breakroom TV and your plan only has 1 outside registered devices, that's it for outside devices. If you think that isn't enough, then you can pay for more outside registrations.

This 100% CAPS the sharing password problem and stops those who share with every one of their friends and family. OR if the information is posted on the internet, you basically stop hundreds from sharing the same account. You would save millions just on the bandwidth alone.

6

u/Seaniard Feb 03 '23

Or, get this, stick with the thing that already works, having people pay more for more streams. Netflix is looking for a solution to something that isn't a problem.