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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.
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.
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