Will you cancel Netflix if they stop Password Sharing?

[Hitcher]

They're already the most expensive streamer because you have pay extra for HD, UHD or more connected devices.

 

If this also stops me using Turkish Netflix then I'm out.

[Vespa Alex]

I expect that once they identify and track your home location, that’ll need to be in the same region as the billing. 

[mushashi]

1 hour ago, elyuw said:

Ah yes good point. I was looking at purely from a logistics perspecitve. If they want to make money they should stop making so much rubbish would be my suggestion, but I realise that's not how they are thinking.

 

Tell that to ITV :P and they haven't gone out of business yet either, or the people at Sky whose annual revenue dwarfs the BBC, yet have barely made any memorable TV programmes in their 32+ year existence!

 

Throw enough shit at the wall and some of it is bound to stick would seem to be their thinking on QC.

 

Even the guy who used to run Amazon's productions is surprised at how piss poor their QC is.

[denisb]

On 05/02/2023 at 14:21, Hitcher said:

They're already the most expensive streamer because you have pay extra for HD, UHD or more connected devices.

 

If this also stops me using Turkish Netflix then I'm out.

 

this is my problem I want uhd so have to pay for 4 simultaneous streams they told me to share my account with others .

 

i want 1 stream uhd so I hope when they force my sister to have her own account they lower my costs 

[Uncle Mike]

On 05/02/2023 at 12:30, Alex W. said:

IP address and/or the hotspot hardware address probably.
 

Will depend on the OS, I know iOS has become very strict on letting apps access any data that can be used to infer user location without consent, but even there the IP address would be available. And if another (Android, Windows, smart TV) device on the same IP address is sharing the known hardware address with Netflix, it’d be easy for them to update in response to IP address changes.

 

Edit - If they’re willing to be more nefarious, pretty much the entire personalised ads industry is based on tracking user locations in near-real time without explicitly having to ask for the device’s location.

 

They don't have to do anything nefarious. The very act of being able to stream the client the video content means they know the internet-facing IP address of wherever it's being used. That's all you need to establish a "home" over time. You don't even really need to know anything about where it is. Just that they view, for example, 60% of their content from one IP address and the rest distributed randomly across what will be 4/5G, wifi, other people's homes etc. Then you just flag any address that consistently appear and are allocated to fixed-line ISPs as being suspected sharers.

[Uncle Mike]

[Alex W.]

28 minutes ago, Uncle Mike said:

 

They don't have to do anything nefarious. The very act of being able to stream the client the video content means they know the internet-facing IP address of wherever it's being used. That's all you need to establish a "home" over time. You don't even really need to know anything about where it is. Just that they view, for example, 60% of their content from one IP address and the rest distributed randomly across what will be 4/5G, wifi, other people's homes etc. Then you just flag any address that consistently appear and are allocated to fixed-line ISPs as being suspected sharers.

I’m thinking about how they’re going to handle the steady churn of IP address changes they’re going to have as background noise. Knowing you have the same access point hardware ID at the new IP address will allow them to suppress false positives.

[Uncle Mike]

In my experience, IP addresses don't change all that much naturally. Your home router renews its DHCP lease well before it expires. Blocking spammers and similar by IP address still works on forums like this! I'm not saying that they don't collect the MAC of the gateway or something, but I'd be surprised if they needed to.

[Hawklord]

5 hours ago, denisb said:

 

this is my problem I want uhd so have to pay for 4 simultaneous streams they told me to share my account with others .

 

i want 1 stream uhd so I hope when they force my sister to have her own account they lower my costs 

This is why I cancelled at the last price increase. I'm the only one in the house who watched Netflix and we only have one 4k TV. I don't need 4 simultaneous UHD streams!

[Capwn]

Got the screen. Erm. what happens if I say ‘set later’ ?

also don’t get how it works whilst traveling? So if a friend comes over to your house and their device is picked up, what’s to say they can’t go off and use it?

 

[mushashi]

On 09/02/2023 at 13:57, denisb said:

 

this is my problem I want uhd so have to pay for 4 simultaneous streams they told me to share my account with others .

 

i want 1 stream uhd so I hope when they force my sister to have her own account they lower my costs 

 

I don't think that is quite the way they plan to implement it, it's rolling out in Canada and Spain as the first major test markets after trials in countries nobody cares about and there, you need to be at either 1080p or 4K to even get the option to add extra non-household members to the plan, so in your case, your sister would be asked to pay ~£6 a month extra if you both wanted 4K still.

 

https://about.netflix.com/en/news/an-update-on-sharing

[Capwn]

So last week I clicked on ‘set primary location later’. Not appeared since, my dad/sister have not noticed anything.

 

They are too scared to pull the trigger. 

[Capwn]

Aw man

 

 

[JPickford]

Cancel.  And tell them why.

[Alex W.]

I wonder if they did some customer research, found out that people would be happy to pay $3 per user for the service, and never bothered to check whether that was on top of the existing subscription. I can’t quite figure out how they would’ve thought it was a marketable idea otherwise.

[robdood]

Weird it seems to be Canada only right now.  But seems it's coming

 

[robdood]

https://help.netflix.com/en/node/128339/ca

 

Also - what?

[Bluejam]

Meh, Amazon fire stick made “special” and the films plus app.

 

 

[Gabe]

7 hours ago, robdood said:

https://help.netflix.com/en/node/128339/ca

 

Also - what?

That's to cover those who only watch views phones or tablets, no?

[elyuw]

53 minutes ago, Gabe said:

That's to cover those who only watch views phones or tablets, no?

Yeah, but why should you have to set a "home/primary location" if you happen to use a TV? I use a TV, my phone, my PC and my Tablet, and so does the other half, depending on circumstances.

[gone fishin]

5 hours ago, elyuw said:

Yeah, but why should you have to set a "home/primary location" if you happen to use a TV? I use a TV, my phone, my PC and my Tablet, and so does the other half, depending on circumstances.

Probably because a TV doesn’t change physical addresses much? 

[Alex W.]

Ah, so that’s what they’re using as a reference point for which part of the internet is the user’s “home” network.

[elyuw]

33 minutes ago, Alex W. said:

Ah, so that’s what they’re using as a reference point for which part of the internet is the user’s “home” network.

Indeed. It's an odd set of rules though; If you use Netflix on a TV, this will be used to set a "home", but if you don't then fair enough you have no "home". Surely Netflix want to limit "where" you can watch or they don't.

[Alex W.]

It does give you a big incentive not to watch Netflix on a TV, or to pretend you don’t. Does Casting count? Expect there will be a lot of poking and prodding this in the weeks to come.

[thesnwmn]

1 hour ago, elyuw said:

Indeed. It's an odd set of rules though; If you use Netflix on a TV, this will be used to set a "home", but if you don't then fair enough you have no "home". Surely Netflix want to limit "where" you can watch or they don't.

 

I don't think they do want to limit where you watch. "Just" how many people (or households) are watching from a single account.

[elyuw]

3 hours ago, thesnwmn said:

 

I don't think they do want to limit where you watch. "Just" how many people (or households) are watching from a single account.

Agreed, but a Netflix account already has such a limitation with number concurrent streams depending on which tier you're on.

 

However suggestions in the past few weeks have been that they want you to define a "home" and then using the service outside of that will require a device to be "authorised" in some way. Which is why is seems odd that if you don't use the service on a TV they won't bother enforcing that.

[Floyd]

No, or rather, I don't currently subscribe to Netflix and i'm one of freeloaders on my brother in laws account. Would I subscribe to Netflix if I got booted off? Possibly for a month every now and again but generally no. Think I'll go back to yarring... too many streaming services now and money is getting tighter. I'm happy to pay for Amazon but that'll do. 

 

[thesnwmn]

2 minutes ago, elyuw said:

Agreed, but a Netflix account already has such a limitation with number concurrent streams depending on which tier you're on. However suggestions in the past few weeks have been that they want you to define a "home" and then using the service outside of that will require a device to be "authorised" in some way.

 

Number of concurrent streams is a different thing. But yes they want to restrict in some way,  or at least charge extra for heavier users.

 

Meanwhile here we're back to households. The idea that one family or group of friends living under the same roof can all use one account but if they have different homes then they should have their own.

 

From that comes this need/desire to identify where* an account is being used. If it's at the home then all good. If it's the person when they're out and about or travelling or staying at a friends then that's supposed to be fine too. So long as you're returning to your home location frequently enough for them to consider it your home.

 

The idea is all that confusing right? Whether the execution is good enough and any inconveniences are low enough to avoid upsetting customers who will continue to use the service once this restriction is in place is the real topic of interest**. The key is the execution.

 

 

* The actual "where" shouldn't actually matter but I understand why people might not want to expose this information even if many already are constantly and just don't realise it.

** Whether the service with the restriction is worth the money or whatever is a different and quite personal issue obviously

 

[Vespa Alex]

6 hours ago, Alex W. said:

It does give you a big incentive not to watch Netflix on a TV, or to pretend you don’t. Does Casting count? Expect there will be a lot of poking and prodding this in the weeks to come.

Yep, I could just stream on an Apple TV rather than use the built in LG app. 

[pledge]

Fairly likely the Apple TV Netflix app would identify itself as a TV