New Netflix Feature Will Prevent Users from Sharing Their Passwords

Your days of sharing that Netflix password are numbered.

They’ve been saying they were going to do it for a while and now it appears that the streaming service is about to crack down on password sharing.

We’re probably all guilty of logging in to one streaming service or another with someone else’s account. It feels pretty harmless like you’re just sharing a pizza with friends, but the reality is that password sharing costs streaming companies a whole lot of money.

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And seeing that business is all about making money, sooner or later those companies are going to figure out a way to stop losing revenue. For instance, Fierce Video reports that it’s estimated that Netflix loses about $6 billion a year because of people sharing their passwords. Yes, that's billion with a “b”.

So, it stands to reason that the company has been working feverishly behind the scenes to figure out how to stop bleeding all of that potential revenue. And starting Monday, October 24, Netflix will introduce its answer to the problem, according to Variety.

The solution is a new feature known as Profile Transfer. The feature will allow someone who has been logging on to another person’s account to transfer their profile to a new account, which will maintain their personalized experience such as recommendations and viewing history.

The question is whether or not people will actually take advantage of the feature or if they’ll just quit Netflix altogether. Time will tell, but people who love to binge-watch shows on someone else’s dime are about to get their feathers ruffled in a big way.