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Netflix Password Sharing May Soon Be Impossible Due To New AI Tracking (independent.co.uk)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Independent: A video software firm has come up with a way to prevent people from sharing their account details for Netflix and other streaming services with friends and family members. UK-based Synamedia unveiled the artificial intelligence software at the CES 2019 technology trade show in Las Vegas, claiming it could save the streaming industry billions of dollars over the next few years. The AI system developed by Synamedia uses machine learning to analyze account activity and recognize unusual patterns, such as account details being used in two locations within similar time periods. The idea is to spot instances of customers sharing their account credentials illegally and offering them a premium shared account service that will authorize a limited level of password sharing. The company said it is already carrying out trials with a number of pay-TV operators but did not reveal which ones.
There is a real simple solution.
Just charge per stream.
Share your password with 50 people. You get billed at the Tier 50 level.
They could even have a family plan so the first 5 streams have a base rate, and charge for every X streams over that.
Why do they "need" AI to solve First. World. Problems. ?
I still share my Netflix with my ex. She's willing to pay for Netflix herself, but there is a problem. She can't take her watching history, ratings, and her list of bookmarked titles to her new account. When asked, Netflix say "meh, just start over".
Come on dudes, your devs could easily add account merges and splits (and while at it, give me an option to let me watch the end credits in full screen in peace). I'm not motivated enough to write a scraper/saver to copy her profile from my account to hers using Greasemonkey (the watch list is probably easy to get, but the entirely to watch progress and the simulation needed to bring every timestamp over might be harder on my end), and you guys don't seem either.
But hey, AI is cool. Decent profile handling is so meh. Don't forget the blockchain.
We live in a rural area where our only available internet connection is by way of satellite. One result is that no location service ever knows where we are. They will think we are in California one minute and Ohio the next. If I understand this new technology correctly, this might hamper our use of services such as Netflix.
I actually hate this service but everyone in the family wants it... so I pay for two of them.
I hope they come down on me so I can get rid of it entirely.
This will only lose them money in the long run likely because the rule of piracy is if you make content difficult to get a hold of, piracy become so easy that they go there instead of with your bullshit draconian DRM schemes for money.
Garbage hype. You don't need AI to recognize when a user is streaming from 2 different locations at near the same time. You need an algorithm. A very simple algorithm.
There is nothing in the source that hints that Netflix are at all interested in using this, and there is nothing at all that links them with Netflix.
This company and/or the various "news" outlets spreading this are piggybacking on Netflix's name to push a new tech with FUD.
...
Yeah, and if people start getting messages that they need to spend more because they're on a business trip and their kid in another state is watching at the same time (and similar scenarios) when they're already paying for the two-stream service, I would imagine they'll start getting pissed.
If the "AI" was so smart why did it not understand the problem and go for the VPN users too?
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Basically it just comes down to "... as account details being used in two locations within similar time periods." You don't need 'machine learning' for that. I suspect Netflix does this behind the scenes and lets it roll for the most common instances of household members watching separately. A while back Amazon clamped down on multiple accounts without AI. I doubt anyone will buy/invest in this firm.
I will continue to invest my own money in brick and mortar companies like Sears and Macy's.
pay per device or per steam at the same time?
that's painfully obvious. Netflix can stop password sharing anytime they want. They don't do it because they're smart enough to know it means a loss of subscribers.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
When I signed up, It was for streaming to X amount of screens. There was no mention of "In a single geographical location". My family and I are all over the damn place- all the damn time, and we all have NF going with our own profiles during our downtime. It's actually easier and more convenient than just torrenting my media.
Listen Netflix. This is your best feature. It's why I signed up. If you add hoops, captchas, and other DRMish garbage, I'm cancelling my service. I don't care if you call it an AI feature. I don't care that you wan't more money. This is the service you sold me. It will simply be easier to spend the same money on VPN service, and teach the fam how to torrent instead.
Don't give me the tired copyright infringement is stealing bullshit either. We don't feel bad about not paying for the media, because your industry don't feel bad about collecting on it for 90 years after the authors death. We're happy to take it back, because the entertainment industry as a whole feels no shame stealing decades of media from the public every time you buy another copyright extension. There is no moral high ground.
You found the sweet spot, Netflix. Don't push it. Your competing with torrents. Every-single-thing selection, no ads, privacy respecting, locally stored, play on any device, in any location, as often as you like torrents.
You are being ripped off every second of every day, so that advertisers can help rip you off even more tomorrow.
This would be end game for me. I'd be done with Netflix. Being able to have one account for the family is the only way the subscription makes financial sense, especially here in Canada.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
So what, now couples and families always have to watch Netflix on their phone from their living room? They can't travel and use the Netflix app anymore? If you pay for 4 streams, you can't use 4 streams?
It's not out of the question for a single household to have more than one internet connection. Maybe the TV in the main room is hooked up to a fibre landline service but then little Johnny wants to watch on a mobile device in his room and he doesn't always connect to wifi and instead uses his cell service. That would show up as two IPs and unless this company is able to track physical locations of IPs across multiple services then it will red-flag with Netflix and they would unfairly cancel your service. Or someone sublets a part of their home that has it's own DSL service, but the person who sublets is actually a member of the family on their way to becoming independent. Might not be terribly common, but these things will happen. Plus there are the concerns that a company is out there aligning IPs with physical locations. Who gives them permission to do this and can you easily opt-out? Anyone with a bit of tech savvy can redirect through a VPN. What does the tracking service make of multiple logins that all use the same VPN? That would effectively cripple it and so anyone who wants to share their Netflix just has to make sure everyone is using the same VPN service. Even if they are not sharing illegitimately is still a perfectly sensible thing to do for privacy-minded folks.
Is this world imploding with AI this and AI that?
You just need to check the accounts logins against : is it possible this assclown was 500 miles apart within 10 minutes? Did the world go full r-tard?
Considering that they sell a tier of service SPECIFICALLY designed (and marketed) at sharing an account...
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
I pay a higher tier because I share with my mom and we'd run out of screens. But then what's unusual? I travel once or twice a year across country and I watch netflix in my hotel room. That could be seen as unusual, but legitimate. I'm hoping they're looking at some extreme cases like dozens of people watching in a cooperative.
Chewbacon
The Bible is like Wikipedia: written by a bunch of people and verifiable by questionable sources.
Why would a subscriber paying for two streams be "flagged" for using two simultaneous streams?
The AI system developed by Synamedia uses machine learning to analyze account activity and recognize unusual patterns, such as account details being used in two locations within similar time periods.
The goal is to upsell single-stream subscribers and convince them to become multi-stream subscribers:
The idea is to spot instances of customers sharing their account credentials illegally and offering them a premium shared account service that will authorize a limited level of password sharing.
Ken
else's hands that is not fully encrypted by you before hand. Is monitored, reviewed, accessed and data mined by said company/anyone willing to pay said company for special access.
;)
The collecting and selling access to all said information is a revenue stream for all of these companies. That is why they are in business and what they do to make money, It is all about making money!
If you use these devices, these sites or their services you must just accept it.
If this bothers you, your only option that works is to not use their services/products, period!
Just my 2 cents
TFA is about a UK-based Synamedia firm that has developed this "AI software" to combat password sharing by geolocating account activity.
It says nothing about an actual partnership with Netflix or any other provider other than that single statement near the end of the article.
Netflix account tiers already have different levels of simultaneous stream allowances (1, 2, and 4). As long as your levels never go above what you're paying for, there's no reason for them to give a damn if your "family" is in different locations. The writer of this article just shoved Netflix in the title line for clickbait.
Duplicate from a week ago.
Jan. 3, 2019: Video Services May Use AI To Crack Down on Password Sharing
>The company said it is already carrying out trials with a number of pay-TV operators but did not reveal which ones.
Probably because 15 min later someone would find a way around it.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
... uses machine learning to analyze account activity and recognize unusual patterns, such as account details being used in two locations within similar time periods...
Wow, almost everything is machine learning now! Such a buzz word...
I did the netflix trial.
I love their interface, and the possibility of using it in the devices in own, including a TV app/applet...
but, and big BUT:
the show and movies are....OLD. The only saving gracing is netflix own productions, which obviously are limited.
Come the TV series are what, 2 years behind?
When and if Holywood gets their act together, and allows them to sell new content....if hell freezes over, I will sign up the next day.
Why do you need AI to determine if someone is logging in from a different location?
People have built things like that ~10 years ago with good old if statements.
I built a system that analyzed login patterns to deter account sharing once. It was about 40 lines of Python composed of a tiny bit of logic and a database lookup. It literally took 30 minutes to create.
Netflix charges per simultaneous stream, sharing your password either means you cant use it or you need a bigger plan which earns them more money.
They charge for simultaneous streams within your household - thus, you are not allowed to e.g. split the cost of one plan between 4 families and they'll just use the samme account. Note that the number fo streams is only aspect of their plans - my plan has 4 simultaneous streams, but we are just two in the household. The reason why my wife and I has the premium plan is UHD.
Seeing AI mentioned, I thought the screen is going to see you to confirm it's you. I'm sure they can ask to turn on camera (yeah handle privacy someway) and ensure it's a live person and the account holder [i guess movie theaters using photo id to confirm reservation is similar]
Which is a shame. Movies suck, I kind like the interface. The only shortcoming I felt on it was searching country by country.
I don't know anyone named Al, so Netflix can track him all the want, so long as it doesn't affect my streams.
Yep, nothing but a press release here. Bop over to techdirt to read the actual story. Both HBO and Netflix are fine with password sharing. So, why is this urgent solution even necessary?
It isn't.
https://www.techdirt.com/artic...