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‘Milking Us For Every Dollar Spent’: Netflix to Charge for Password Sharing Starting Early 2023

The golden days of using your roommate’s brother’s friend’s girlfriend’s password to access Netflix might soon be over thanks to a new announcement by the popular streaming service.

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“We’ve always made it easy for people who live together to share their Netflix account, with features like separate profiles and multiple streams in our Standard and Premium plans,” Netflix explained in a statement. “While these have been hugely popular, they have also created some confusion about when and how Netflix can be shared. As a result, accounts are being shared between households – impacting our ability to invest in great new TV and films for our members.”

The company was clear to point out that though it isn’t stopping members from sharing passwords, it will begin charging them to do so.

Two new features will be tested in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru — one where users can add “sub accounts” to their accounts for users not in their households which will have separate passwords for a lower price than the normal subscription price and the ability to transfer profile information to a new account while keeping viewing history and recommendations.

Related: Netflix Is Raising Prices in the U.S.

“We’ll be working to understand the utility of these two features for members in these three countries before making changes anywhere else in the world,” Netflix said.

Naturally, people were less than thrilled.

Many lamented the company’s fees and increase in pricing, while others called the company “greedy” and pointed out that Netflix is no longer the “only option” for streaming services anymore.

This will not be the first time that Netflix has tried to crack down on users’ infamous password sharing.

Last year, the company tested two-step authentication before users logged in on a different device that the account owner would have to approve of via phone or email before the account would successfully log in.

The streaming giant also raised subscription prices this past January in the U.S. and Canada, with U.S. prices increasing up to $15.49 for standard plans and a $2 bump to premium plans which are now $19.99.

Netflix was down just shy of 30% year over year as of Thursday afternoon.

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