The password-sharing policy that Netflix previously announced has not yet been applied in Vietnam.
In early February, Netflix updated its specific set of regulations on blocking account sharing on the website. However, this notice was quickly removed from the user support page of the movie-sharing platform. Netflix’s policy of blocking account sharing has not been widely applied worldwide.
Specifically, the notice clearly states that an account is now only allowed to be used within one household instead of being shared widely among many different households. Once a month, users will have to connect to home Wi-Fi to open the Netflix app and watch any content to make sure their device is still linked to the account registered address.
After a month, devices that are not linked on time will be locked from your Netflix home account. The movie-sharing platform says it will identify people who don’t live in the same house as the account holder by tracking the IP address, device ID, and other activity of the Netflix account.
Therefore, each account is only linked to a single household. If you want to use another household’s account, you’ll have to sign up for a new account. Otherwise, they will be blocked from accessing Netflix.
However, speaking to The Guardian, a Netflix representative said that this set of regulations has only been tested in Chile, Peru and Costa Rica. The post on the global support page on February 1 was an error of the company, so it was quickly taken down.
“A notice on the support page posted inaccurate information. That policy only applies to users in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru but living in another country,” a Netflix representative said.
Although affirming that the specific regulation on the policy of blocking account sharing on February 1 is just an error, it is likely that this will be a regulation that will be applied globally in the near future. In Latin American countries, this set of regulations requires Netflix users to pay an additional $2.99 fee to share an account with people who do not live in the same house.
Netflix says the new policy won’t affect how many people watch Netflix content at the same time, as long as they stay in the same apartment. In case of travel or business, Netflix will send them a temporary confirmation code to use the service elsewhere within 7 days.
This is Netflix’s biggest change after facing a decline in user numbers for the first time in more than a decade. The company estimates that more than 100 million users are using Netflix by sharing accounts.
Within the first 3 months of 2023, the platform will officially apply a policy of banning account sharing to end this situation and bring new revenue streams to the company. “Users can pay an additional fee if they want to share passwords with people who are not with them,” a Netflix representative said.
