Netflix now claiming it only released draconian new password-sharing restrictions by accident
The highly-restrictive new password-sharing rules were apparently only supposed to roll out in a handful of countries
Aux News Password
Aw, jeez, folks: Netflix done “Whoopsie!”’d again, with the streamer attempting to claim today that its recent reveal of highly restrictive password-sharing policies on its web site was not, in fact, a trial balloon to see just how angry its users would get over being treated like International Password Criminals, but simply a Goofus-level screw-up—like when you accidentally sit in a cream pie, or fart in front of a countess, or enrage millions of paying customers with short-sighted, asinine security policies.
This is per The Streamable, which notes that, after Netflix’s domestic help center revealed a series of restrictive new password sharing requirements on Tuesday—including requirements that all users sharing a password must log in to the same Wi-Fi network every 31 days, essentially banning accounts shared by people who don’t live together—those notices have now been pulled from the site. In a statement to The Streamable, a Netflix spokesperson says that that article was published in error, and that its contents were only supposed to apply to (and be seen by) users in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru, whose Netflix users have had the, uh, privilege of being the testing grounds for Netflix’s new anti-password efforts over the last year. (Spoiler alert: Everybody there fucking hates them, with tons of pushback and cancellations following the rollout.)
Whether the publication of the password crackdowns were genuinely a mistake, or actually a quick check by Netflix to see just how much anger attempting to bring these “innovations” to the rest of the world would provoke, remains unclear. What’s not unclear is that people generally lost their minds about the news. Even if you ignore actual password sharing—which, we feel moved to note, the company itself has acknowledged and encouraged in the past, until it got seriously into the idea of getting blood from a maxed-out subscriber base stone recently—but also people just trying to use their one account in multiple locations. It’s clear something like this is coming, though—even if it won’t be exactly on these testing terms.
39 Comments
Why do they keep doing trial runs for shitty policies in South America? What’s wrong with Italy or Bulgaria?
Too white.
Its the same policy the US military uses for coups, try it first in South America!
If this password thing had worked, Iraq and Afghanistan woulda been next…
The regional pricing in South American countries is a LOT lower than in developed countries. For example if you pay in Brazilian reals or Argentine pesos it’s half the cost of the US price when converted to USD.So it’s not surprising that they do trial runs there as they have less to lose from mass cancellations in these countries vs the US/Europe/Canada/Japan/etc.
So Global South, but literally.
If they wanted me to keep my personal subscription they shouldn’t have cancelled all of the shows I like after ending seasons on a cliffhanger.
Seriously, after all the shit they’ve cancelled cancelling netflix was quite satisfying.
*cancels*
“THIS IS FOR G.L.O.W!!!!”
Yeah, I think the “hm, I might not cast my entire viewing future on Netflix” shoe dropped when Santa Clarita Diet was cancelled after a hysterical season 3 ended on a doozy of a cliffhanger.
Me, I was more like “hm, I might not cast my entire viewing future on Santa Clarita Diet after watching three episodes of that train wreck!”
I will never forgive them for cancelling Warrior Nun on a cliffhanger and Ava and Beatrice not just apart but in different realms of existence
I should be more surprised that i’m getting this news from one of your posts instead of a newswire, but i’m not.Looks like the staff was finally whittled down to a single monkey w/ a typewriter.
I’m getting real Wizards of the Coast vibes with the “leaked” OGL for Dungeons & Dragons that was doing the typical corporate cash grab. They ended up having to walk it back due to outrage and people cancelling D&D Beyond subscriptions.If everyone just cancels their Netflix sub they’ll walk back the changes.
Umm, they’ve already “walked it back” or rather, said “it never walked out in the first place”
I gave up Netflix a year ago. When the new season of the Crown came on, I watched it with my Mom. I have not missed the service at all, and my Mom appreciated some extra visits and a chance to gossip about “those Royals.”
Uh-huh
Is there a reason a single subscriber would need to be logged into Netflix in two or more different locations at the same time?
Asking for a friend.
This is for family plans, not single subscribers.
OP clearly just means “one account”. Regardless if it’s a 2-screen, 4-screen account
i originally took ‘password sharing’ in this context to be multiple people logged into the same ‘profile’ and sharing it across households, but no this applies to family plans/shared accounts.so if i’m reading the rules correctly, if i’m out of town for a month and can’t login at home, but mom won’t be able to use her netflix profile she shares on my account at her house.
T-Mobile already subsidizes my Netflix subscription but if/when they enact this I’m going to just cancel out of principle.
See you on Netflix next year
I split my time in Chiang Mai and O.C. California. I came to the states yesterday and I can login to my Netflix account on my tv but it won’t allow me to watch any content. The screen directs me to sign up for a new account. It’s kind of like logging into one’s Netflix with the monthly charge unpaid. It still works on my Thai/US dual sim phone and wi-fi tablet.
I’m a responsible adult and I pay for my own account. All of my responsible adult friends do the same thing.Of course, we’re able to afford this because there’re twenty-three of us on one Costco membership.
My goodness, I can’t even imagine how big the end-of-year rebate would be if we had 23 people on our Costco membership. We’re a four-person household, with one of those persons at college for most of the year, and our most recent one was like $170.
I tried bringing non-member friends to Costco once, and the employees went fucking HAM on us. Threatening to cancel our membership and all kinds of shit like that. I haven’t dared to try it again.
Maybe Netflix shouldn’t have canned Santa Clarita Diet, then.
Man, how great would it be if Netflix just took a stand and was the first company to say to investors: Listen, you greedy fucks, we’re making a ton of profit every month- that’s our job, not growing stock price in a completely unsustainable, endless climb.
That’s some James Stephanie Sterling logic right there and Netflix would probably be about as likely as Activision-Blizzard to ever say something like that.
I didn’t say it’d be likely, I said it’d be great.
But literally the job of a publicly traded company *is* to grow their stock price. Their shareholders are the real customers — not the subscribers. If a public company ignores this, their shareholders can (and often do) replace the CEO with one they think will raise the stock price more. A privately held company can just focus on profit, because they are not beholden to shareholders.
Yeah the shitty think about it is that if a CEO actually did say that, the CEO would deserve to be fired.
The real villain was capitalism all along!
Everything you just said is wrong. The owners are not the customers. Not literally and not even figuratively. Also, stocks meant to grow are only one category, not some inherent feature of all stock. Returning dividends is a method of providing investment income. And private companies have numerous shareholders.
That’s technically true, but it also doesn’t have be done in the constant, unsustainable, and myopic fashion it does right now. Stocks aren’t supposed to be short term investments, or at least they weren’t until the day trader class took over.
The weirdest part of the policy they walked back was that you could get out of it if you rolled a nat 20 on your save.
Ah, yes, the classic “Hasbro/WotC” defense!
Riiight
By “accident” they mean “Oops we messed up”