Hulu can now cancel your account at its “sole discretion” if you share your password

Well, folks, it might finally be time to change your Hulu password. Under the streamer’s new password-sharing crackdown, anyone who still has your login details could very easily screw you out of watching Feud: Capote Vs. The Swans or even the latest episode of The Bachelor. Don’t let that wayward ex ruin your life all over again.

Hulu is following the leads of both Netflix and their parent company Disney+, both of which have instituted their own password-sharing restrictions in recent years. Unlike Netflix’s infamous wi-fi-based monitoring system, however, Hulu seems to be taking a slightly more freeform approach.

“Unless otherwise permitted by your Service Tier, you may not share your subscription outside of your household,” reads a new Hulu subscriber agreement. The term “household” refers to “the collection of devices associated with your primary personal residence that are used by the individuals who reside therein.” The streamer doesn’t specify how exactly it will monitor which devices are associated with which household. Can a college student still use their parents’ account on campus? We don’t know, and neither does Hulu, it seems. A source told us that this is still an ongoing conversation.

Even though the language around things like IP addresses and geography is essentially nonexistent, you may not want to be the guinea pig that figures it out for the rest of us. “We may, in our sole discretion, analyze the use of your account to determine compliance with this Agreement,” the document continues. “If we determine, in our sole discretion, that you have violated this Agreement, we may limit or terminate access to the Service and/or take any other steps as permitted by this Agreement.” In case you’re wondering, Big Brother is, indeed, a Hulu property that you can stream any time you want… as long as you’re using your own password. Maybe execs got some ideas.

These new terms went into effect January 25 for all new subscribers (per Variety). For existing subscribers, they’ll begin March 14 unless the subscriber agreement is acknowledged before that. We’re not sure why anyone would willingly do that, though, unless they were the mooching ex trying to get one over on the actual password holder. Stay safe out there, folks!