Netflix Now Lets You Log Out Individual Devices Remotely — Part of Its Move to Curb Unauthorized Password-Sharing
Netflix is giving customers a new way to lock down their accounts, marking another step in its larger efforts to curtail illicit password sharing.
Starting Tuesday, the company is rolling out Manage Access and Devices, a new feature in Netflix’s Account Settings that lets customers view all the recent devices that have streamed using their account credentials and log out of specific devices with a single click. The feature is available on the web, as well as iOS and Android apps. Netflix has already allowed customers to view recent device-streaming activity from their Account Settings page but until now provided only the option to log out every device that was currently signed in.
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“With the busy holiday season just around the corner, many of our members will be on the move and watching Netflix wherever they are traveling to see family and friends. Logging in to your account while at a hotel or even your friend’s house is easy and intuitive, but lots of people then forget to log out,” Charles Wartemberg, Netflix product manager in Netflix’s product innovation group, wrote in a blog post announcing the new feature.
According to Wartemberg, the ability to sign out individual devices has been a “much-requested feature” from Netflix subscribers. It stands to reason that Netflix customers want to ensure their accounts are secure, so they don’t unwittingly let someone else piggyback on their subscription (and, for example, max out the concurrent-stream limit on their plans) or have someone making unwanted changes to their settings.
But by making it easier for Netflix users to police their accounts, the streamer also is looking to shut down password-sharing that could be costing it revenue. The company has estimated that passwords are being shared in violation of its rules with more than 100 million non-paying households worldwide, including more than 30 million in the U.S. and Canada alone.
In early 2023, Netflix plans to roll out “a thoughtful approach to monetize account sharing,” the company said in its Q3 shareholder letter. That will let password-sharers create sub-accounts (to add “Extra Members”) if they want to pay for family or friends, according to the company. Earlier this year, Netflix kicked off a test in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru to let customers add password-borrowers as “Extra Members.”
Last month, Netflix introduced Profile Transfer, a feature that lets anyone on an existing account migrate their profile to a new — and separately paid-for — account while preserving their settings.
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