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.

Comments

Simple solution: Charge per stream

[UnknownSoldier]

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. ?

Let my ex take her profile with her

[110010001000]

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.

Re:Let my ex take her profile with her

[UnknownSoldier]

> She can't take her watching history, and her list of bookmarked titles to her new account.
> Come on dudes, your devs could easily add account merges and splits

Agreed! That would be REALLY nice Quality of Life improvement. You are spot on about watching history being "locked" to an account. This isn't fucking rocket science -- just some basic computer science.

Even worse is when old content gets pulled. How am I supposed to add it to my "Want to watch again list". I can't because the page no longer exists.

The Netflix UI is a complete clusterfuck at times. When you search for content that they don't have rights / license to they instead show "other related" shows. NO! I want to go to the entity I _searched_ for AND I want give you FEEDBACK that I'm interested in by pressing "Notify me when this becomes available". Kind of like a "Wish List". Gee, apparently this is too fucking hard to figure out!

HBO Go has a really nice feature "Leaving soon..." Content that will be going away at the end of the month. THAT's how you keep engagement high. INFORM people what they can't soon watch so they are more likely to watch it.

That thumbs up/down rating system is also shit. The 5 star system allows me to grade something as "Great!", "Good", "Meh", "Bad", "Total crap". Lacking fine granularity is NOT helpful.

Do they even USE their product???

Re:Let my ex take her profile with her

[mjwx]

I still share my Netflix with my ex.

I don't really think this is there problem.

I spend a bit of time in developing nations, there are a fair few people reselling Nexflix logins. You can easily resell a 4 screen account to 15-20 people by sharing the password. They change the password each month to ensure that people still pay. I think these are the people Netflix is looking for.

Works for me!

[SirAstral]

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.

Slow Down!

[Barny]

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.

Re:Slow Down!

[j-beda]

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.

Further, while Netflix might someday stop this type of activity, they already monetize it by charging subscribers higher prices if they want to be able to view multiple streams simultaneously.

Clickbait article.

[atrex]

TFA is about a UK-based Synamedia firm that has developed this "AI software" to combat password sharing by geolocating account activity.

"The company said it is already carrying out trials with a number of pay-TV operators but did not reveal which ones."

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.