Netflix withdraws from the idea of ​​​​fighting account sharing in the US. For how long?

As we wrote a few days ago, Netflix came up with a new idea to combat the practice of sharing an account by people who do not live together permanently. In three countries (Costa Rica, Chile and Peru), tests have been launched to verify the location of devices via a Wi-Fi network.

In short, Netflix required each user to watch something on the platform by connecting to their home Wi-Fi network at least once every 31 days. If he does so, the given device will be considered trusted and it will not be necessary to authorize access, e.g. by SMS password. If either person fails to meet the requirement, Netflix can ban the entire account.

Netflix withdraws from the controversial idea

The idea quickly caused a storm, because Netflix did not take into account, for example, people who travel very often, live at many addresses or go to study or work in another city. Even more criticism arose when similar rules appeared in the Q&A (questions and answers) tab of the American version of the platform.

Now it turns out that the rules were published… by mistake. At least on the US page. As reported, Netflix deleted the information about the need to log in to the home Wi-Fi network from the website and admitted that the requirement is to apply only to Chile, Costa Rica and Peru, and information about it appeared on websites dedicated to other countries by chance.

This calmed down the American users of the popular platform a bit, but it does not mean that Netflix has completely abandoned the idea. The requirement to connect to home Wi-Fi remains in the three countries mentioned above, and a commentary for Netflix admitted that it could be “implemented more broadly” in the first quarter.

It is worth mentioning that it is common practice for Netflix to test various new products in one or more selected markets before a similar principle or feature is released to other markets. It is therefore possible that the platform will wait until the criticism dies down a bit, while testing the reception of the new rules in Latin America. Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that they will later reach Poland.