Netflix declared war a few months ago on account sharing between people who do not live together. The streaming giant estimates that more than 100 million households share their subscription, or nearly half of the 230 million subscribers. Spotted by the Huffington PostNetflix has just updated its site and now indicates how it intends to do so.
The company intends to use theaddress IPaddress IP, device identifiers and account activity to determine the location that constitutes the subscriber’s household. If someone is using a device for the first time when it is not connected from the subscriber’s home, it will first have to be validated. Netflix will send a confirmation code to the subscriber’s mobile number or email address which they must enter on the device within 15 minutes to access the service.
A paid option to share your account
Netflix will also ask to revalidate any device that has not accessed the service from the subscriber’s home for more than a month. However, no validation will be requested for devices that use the Internet connection of the Netflix household, within the limit of the number of simultaneous connections authorized in the chosen package.
The service plans to set up a paid option that allows you to share your account by adding secondary households. Netflix already tested a similar option in a few Latin American countries last year. Billed the equivalent of 2 to 3 euros, the results had been mixed. In order to encourage users to take their own subscription, Netflix should offer profile transfer, for example from a shared account to a brand new account, in order to avoid losing its history. The company hasn’t yet indicated a timeline for when these changes will be in place, but some sources say they could arrive as early as the end of March.
Netflix will charge for sharing passwords
Rather than blocking accounts shared between several people, Netflix will offer to charge a small fee. This solution is being tested in three South American countries, and the idea is to exclusively reserve the sharing of an account within the same household. For sharing with friends, you will have to pay…
Article by Fabrice Auclert, published on 03/17/2022
« We haven’t finished asking you for your codes “. This is the slogan of Canal+, this year, with its advertisements which feature ThatThat Merad to whom all his relatives ask for the codes to connect and enjoy Canal +. A way of ironizing on the sharing of passwords, and at Netflix, we are also looking for solutions to limit this sharing of codes, considered as piracy.
After testing an alert system the saisonsaison passed to encourage “fraudsters” to create their own Netflix accounts, the platform is currently testing another paid process. In Chile, Costa Rica and Peru, Netflix invites subscribers to pay extra to share their account with people outside their household. Netflix explains that subscribers will be able to add up to two “Extra members” and it is charged between 2 and 3 dollars depending on the country. For the moment, no indication of an implementation in the United States, Asia, Africa or Europe.
Only family sharing is allowed
The additional cost is therefore borne by the owner of the “parent” account and it is up to him to “negotiate” with his friends to share the costs… For Netflix, the idea is to convert these “Extra members” into subscribers, with the possibility of transferring their profile in the event of a new registration, and thus of resuming current series, or of sending them personalized recommendations.
For Netflix, this sharing of accounts, outside the home, represents a big shortfall. ” Accounts are shared between households, which impacts our ability to invest in new TV shows and movies for our members writes Chengyi Long, director of Netflix Product Innovation, in a blog post. What we do not know is how Netflix will be able to distinguish the use of an account by friend from use on vacation…
Netflix could use AI to limit account sharing
Au Consumer Electronics Show 2019, a British company unveiled a service dedicated to solutions for VODVOD, capable of detecting whether sharing a login password is done legally or fraudulently. At the heart of this system is machine learning.
Posted on January 14, 2019 by Fabrice Auclert
« Can you send me your Netflix username and password? “. The Netflix subscriber who has never heard this question raises his finger! Sharing Netflix accounts is very simple, and it is easy to circumvent the limits imposed by the famous video-on-demand service. To counter this shortfall estimated at 10 billion dollars for 2021 (source Parks Associates) and what is similar to piracy, a company specializing inartificial intelligenceartificial intelligence offered its services to Netflix, but also to other subscription services offering video content. At the heart of this anti-piracy system, called Credentials Sharing Insight : artificial intelligence!
Concretely, Synamedia has developed a softwaresoftware capable of monitoring, detecting and blocking the sharing of identifiers and passwords. Why is this solution more sophisticated than what Netflix and competing systems use internally? Quite simply because artificial intelligence is able to know if the account is shared with a relative in the family circle, or if the identifiers are used by a person who is not linked to the subscription. An intelligent monitoring system that avoids untimely blockages, while identifying fraudulent use.
Machine learning is more efficient than an algorithm
To make the distinction, the software first retrieves the entire database of the service concerned, ie tens of millions of accounts when it comes to Netflix. Then, artificial intelligence comes into play to identify the places of connection and the devices used by an account. Each time the identifiers are used on another connection place or another device, it is the machine learning which is responsible for determining trends, and giving a probability score. The higher this score, the more obvious the hack. This is all the more obvious when the same account is connected to several places at the same time…
But why use machine learning rather than a stricter blocking system like there are on other services? Quite simply because user habits are changing, and more particularly those of young people, who are more inclined to start a series on their computer, then to continue watching an episode on their smartphonesmartphone, and finish it on their console, at a friend’s house. IP addresses are multiplying and it becomes complicated to know if the use is fraudulent or not. An algorithm, installed in hard, will not make the distinction whereas a note of probability, given by artificial intelligence, leaves the hand with the man to determine it.
If Netflix is convinced by this service that it has not yet integrated, two solutions: either the account is blocked because it is used illegally; or the user is directed to an offer more suited to his type of use. This tool therefore does not only have an anti-piracy aim since the goal is also to evaluate the different types of content sharing to direct the user towards a more complete and therefore… often more expensive solution. Thus, at Netflix, the different offers offer between 1 and 4 users (or connected devices) simultaneously, with a cost that varies from 7.99 to 13.99 euros per month.
