Netflix password sharing crackdown: What you need to know

Netflix didn’t always have a problem with subscribers sharing their passwords. As recently as 2016, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings called the practice a “positive thing” because so many password sharers eventually got their own accounts. To be clear, Hastings wasn’t actually encouraging password sharing, but he didn’t seem interested in a crackdown, either, noting that account sharing “really hasn’t been a problem.”

Of course, Hastings’ 2016 comments came in the context of explosive subscriber growth for Netflix. By early 2022, that growth had stalled, with Netflix reporting that its subscriber base had shrunk for the first time in a decade. Password sharing was partly to blame, the company said.

While Netflix hasn’t quantified how much revenue it may have lost from password sharers, a Los Angeles Times report estimates the practice may have cost streamer and pay-TV operators up to $9.1 billion in 2019, a figure that could balloon to $12.5 billion by 2024. 

The streaming landscape has also changed dramatically in the past few years. Back in 2016, Hastings could afford to be cavalier about password sharing because the streamer faced little in the way of serious competition. Today, it’s up against the likes of Disney+, HBO Max, Paramount+, Peacock, and Apple TV+.

With all the big players fighting tooth-and-nail over new subscribers, streamers like Netflix aren’t giving password sharers a free pass anymore, and there are early signs that Netflix’s password-sharing crackdown is actually working in terms of adding paying users.

According to Netflix’s Help Center, you can only share your Netflix account with people “who live together in a single household.”

It’s also fine to use the same Netflix account when you’re traveling or between different homes–for example, if you’re staying at your summer home (lucky you!), you can sign in to your Netflix account there as well as at your regular residence.

But if you share your Netflix password–and thus your account–with someone who doesn’t live in your household without paying extra, that’s a no-no, and it’s clearly spelled out in Netflix’s Terms of Use.

Netflix says it uses a combination of IP addresses, device IDs, and “account activity from devices signed into the Netflix account” to determine if an account is being used in the primary account holder’s household.

Netflix may also ask you to verify a device by entering a four-digit verification code sent to the account holder.

Suffice to say that if you’re sharing someone else’s Netflix account, Netflix can likely detect it.

Well, that’s a bit of a gray area. 

The 30-year-old Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (or CFAA) is often cited as a federal law that could make password sharing a crime, and in 2016, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a particular case of corporate password-sharing was illegal under the CFAA. 

But as Slate points out, there is “much ambiguity and uncertainty” about the CFAA, and the 2016 Ninth Circuit ruling had nothing to do with sharing streaming passwords.

Put another way, ask 10 lawyers whether it’s legal to share your Netflix password and you’ll get 10 different answers. 

In any event, no one has ever been prosecuted for sharing their Netflix password, or at least not yet.

Starting back in May, Netflix began emailing users in the United States and other regions who are sharing their accounts with people outside their households. The email details how you can transfer a profile to a new account, as well as the option of paying to share your account.

While the email stops short of warning users not to share their Netflix accounts without paying extra, it was clear that the Netflix password sharing crackdown had officially begun.

The move followed a growing series of password-sharing tests that began in 2021, when the streamer began asking users to verify their Netflix accounts using a four-digit code sent to the account holder. A “verify later” option let users keep streaming even if they didn’t have the code, but still, the test certainly raised eyebrows.

In March 2022, Netflix’s efforts to stem password sharing became more official, with the company announcing an option for account holders in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru to create reduced-priced “sub accounts” for up to two people outside their household.

Four months later, Netflix took a different tack, rolling out an “add a home” feature that let Netflix subscribers in five Latin American countries “buy” more homes in which they–or others–could use the same Netflix account.

Later, Netflix announced a new “Profile Transfer” tool that makes it easy for password sharers to transfer all their Netflix profile data, including their watch lists, histories, and recommendations, to a new account. In July 2023, Netflix rolled out the option to move a profile to an existing account rather than to a new one.

Most recently, Netflix rolled out account-sharing features in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, and (now) the United States.

In the U.S., Netflix charges users who want to share their accounts $7.99 a month per “extra member.”

Account-sharing prices vary in other regions. In Canada, for example, Premium and Standard subscribers (who pay CAD$20.99 and CAD$16.49, respectively) must pay CAD$7.99 a month for each sub-account, while Netflix streamers in the U.K. must pay £4.99 per extra household.

There’s been plenty of grumbling about Netflix’s account-sharing rules, but there have also been signs that the streamer’s new policies are, in fact, working.

In its most recent quarterly report, Netflix announced that it had added an impressive 5.6 million subscribers, and that the number of new subscribers was larger than the amount of cancellations. That result surely counts as a “win” in Netflix’s book.

For the rest of us, there is a silver lining to the apparent success of Netflix’s password-sharing crackdown: no immediate price hikes, with the streamer’s CFO promising that any upcoming Netflix price increases are “more than a year out.”