Netflix Customers Lash out Over Password Sharing Crackdown

By Michael Hein

Netflix is finally cracking down on password-sharing in the U.S. this quarter – or as the company calls it, "launching paid sharing." The company has been teasing this new system for over a year and has already enacted it in many other countries. Naturally, fans in the U.S. are horrified to hear that it is coming their way at last.

"Paid sharing" is a new system where Netflix uses geolocation and IP addresses to track which devices are logging into Netflix through the same account, what network they are on and where they are in the world. Each user will need to identify their home and so that Netflix will know if devices are being used outside of that home. The company will then shut down outside users after a certain period of time unless the account holder pays an additional fee. Netflix says that 100 million people are sharing passwords in multiple households and that this step will keep the company profitable.

If this sounds familiar, it's because it has made headlines several times already. Last year Netflix had its first fiscal quarter without subscriber growth and it announced plans for this crackdown. A few months later, it began testing "paid sharing" in some countries and users were horrified. Finally, earlier this year Netflix announced that paid sharing was coming to the U.S. and social media filled with outrage. Netflix delayed those plans – until now.

That delay created a misunderstanding for some users who believed that Netflix had simply backed down on the idea altogether. However, in the long run, it seems unlikely that Netflix will give up on the idea of paid sharing. That hasn't stopped it from becoming headline news once again. Here's a look at how users reacted to the big announcement online this week.

Missed Opportunities

While paid sharing is billed as an objective plan to make more money, fans have pointed out other times when Netflix inexplicably made the less profitable choice without the same logic.

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Timing

Netflix has had a couple of notable missteps in the news recently, and fans were surprised that the company would announce something so predictably unpopular in the midst of controversy. The truth is that Netflix announced paid sharing to shareholders in order to assure them that the company would bring in more money this quarter.

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'Love is Blind'

Plenty of other commenters cracked jokes about the Love is Blind fiasco as well, wondering why they would pay extra for a service that dropped the ball this badly.

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Boycott

Some fans thought that boycotting Netflix, signing online petitions and generally making their voices heard on social media might change the company's mind again.

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Moving the Goalpost

Netflix has often touted its subscriber growth as its most important metric, but it won't be able to continue doing so for long. Many fans wondered if the company is prepared for this shift in perception.

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Subscriber Loss

Between paid sharing and other policy changes, many users predicted that Netflix will see a greater loss in subscribers than it is expecting to. The company claims it only needs 20 percent of users with shared passwords to create new accounts.

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Piracy

Finally, many fans fear that Netflix will push many paying viewers to resort to piracy with their new policies. They complained that this would be bad for everyone in the long run when it eventually impacts the way Hollywood chooses and funds projects.

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