Sharing your streaming account password is a private alternative. That said, it violates many streaming platforms’ terms of service – and you can be banned from the location for doing it.
What Is Password Sharing?
People have been sharing their passwords for various subscription business model accounts corresponding to music, video and sports streaming services (and even Uber and Amazon).
Streaming services, surprisingly, used to encourage subscribers to share their passwords.
“By any person sharing their account with one other person, (they hoped) that person over time would love Netflix a lot that they’d get their very own account,” streaming media expert Dan Rayburn says.
That’s exactly what has happened within the streaming world. In line with a March 2022 survey by Leichtman Research Group, about 64% of respondents said they paid for and used their very own accounts, while roughly 33% said their accounts were “utilized in a couple of household.”
Now, firms are changing their stances and attempting to put an end to password sharing. For instance, Netflix recently decided to heighten restrictions on password sharing in an effort to extend revenues.
Is Password Sharing Illegal?
In terms of legality, password sharing is a gray area.
Some have pointed to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a 1986 cybersecurity law designed to counter hacking, as applicable to password sharing. And a U.S. appeals court ruled in 2016 that password sharing did qualify, making it a federal crime.
But there’s no precedent of somebody bringing a case to court over the problem.
“I do not think it’s ever been actually dropped at court,” Michael D. Smith, professor of knowledge technology and marketing at Carnegie Mellon University, says.
While the laws surrounding it is probably not concrete, Rayburn says that password sharing does violate terms of service agreements.
“Just about each piece of software that you just use in your computer says something to the effect of, there are specific things you’ll be able to do with the software versus things you’ll be able to’t,” he says.
Violating those terms of service could have its own consequences – the location could terminate your services. Each streaming platform has its own terms of service and every sets its own consequences for violating them.
Issues Regarding Account Sharing
The apparent reason people share their accounts is to make streaming cheaper. While many consumers have switched to streaming to cut cable bills, streaming services’ costs can really add up.
That rise in cost has led some users to vary their minds about having their very own passwords for every streaming service they use. Sharing one account amongst a family could make it cheaper but could also violate the terms of service if someone shares outside of that household.
Review these 4 reasons sharing your password could possibly be a problem:
1. It Might Make Your Streaming Less Private
For those who’re concerned about your online privacy, sharing passwords to access your Amazon Prime, Uber or streaming services accounts could give people access to your data. And that data includes things corresponding to your use history and payment information. And if it’s a password you employ for various accounts, it could compromise those as well.
2. It Could Eventually Cost More
For Netflix subscribers, password sharing could have its own cost because the corporate has tested a technique to add extra members and share outside of a subscriber’s household at a further cost. Even though it hasn’t tested within the U.S. yet, Netflix has rolled this system out in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru.
3. It Could Disrupt Your Service
Many streaming services limit the variety of screens that may stream content at one time. So, for those who’re sharing your password with other people, it’d leave you with a blank screen, which implies you would not have the opportunity to make use of the service you really pay for.
4. There’s an Ethical Query at Hand
In terms of password sharing, Smith feels there’s an ethical issue around “taking” content.
“It’s mistaken to take something from someone that hasn’t given you permission to take that thing. On this case, Netflix has been very clear that these services are just for people in your household,” he says.
