On February 8, Netflix announced the beginning of the end for the “usual” shared accounts on the service in Spain. The company urged users to adapt to the new situation, but did not clarify how exactly it would act. Now we know something else.
announcements begin. As we had anticipated, if Netflix detects that a user is using an account in an unauthorized way, it first sends a notice to the email or mobile of the person who owns the account. As seen in the image, whoever is using that account outside the main location (your home) will see a message on the TV.
temporary access code. In that message it is indicated that in order to continue using Netflix for another 14 days from that new location you will have to enter the temporary code that is sent by mail or by message. It is the user of the shared account who must choose whether he prefers to be sent an email or an SMS.
just a warning. As can be seen in the message on the television, the language is positive and Netflix recognizes that a user may simply be away from home (for a work trip, for example) and wants to continue enjoying their account. It is interesting to see how this temporary code allows there to be no problems to continue enjoying Netflix from that other location for two weeks, the period that the company seems to establish to re-verify if something strange is happening. The message, yes, is different from the one seen in Chile a few months ago.
No direct blocks. There is no data in that message about a potential blocking of the account, and everything indicates that these notices only occur if these unauthorized uses are repeated and it is detected that the terms of use of the service are indeed being violated.
How do they detect it? Netflix has already revealed that they use the combination of various data to make that detection. The activity of the devices, the approximate location based on the IP address from which we connect (assigned to us when connecting to a Wi-Fi or Ethernet network) and the device identifiers themselves are some of the keys for this detection, although the company has not detailed the process.
This has only started. For now we have only known one notice of this type, but it will surely be one of the many that from now on the service will give when it detects possible unauthorized uses. Temporary codes are a convenient way to verify everything, and that 14-day time frame is reasonable. It remains to be seen what effect this has on the company’s business figures and the number of subscribers in the coming months.
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