As one of the biggest and most popular streaming services in the world, Netflix is a must-have in today’s streaming landscape. But now, the company has announced a major shift in its stance on password-sharing for Canadian subscribers.
Effective immediately, Netflix Canada is cracking down on password-sharing practices that allow users to share their login information with family or friends. This means that it will be harder for users to create secondary accounts from their primary subscription.
Netflix is clamping down on password-sharing practices in Canada first for a couple of reasons. First, the country’s relatively smaller population makes it easier to target and clamp down on these practices as compared to a larger market like the United States.
Second, Canada’s copyright laws are more restrictive than the copyright laws found in the US. This makes it easier to enforce the company’s policy on password-sharing and makes it more likely that offenders will be punished.
Netflix has not made any announcements about plans to clamp down on password-sharing in other markets like the US. While the company has expressed interest in doing so, it likely wants to have time to assess the effectiveness of its efforts in Canada before making changes in any other markets.
However, the fact that the company has taken a stance in Canada could be seen as a sign that it’ll eventually launch a crackdown in the US as well. As more streaming services like Disney+ and HBO Max come on the scene, there is more incentive for Netflix to get its subscribers to buck the habit of password-sharing.
But for now, it looks like Netflix’s password-sharing crackdown is limited to Canada — for the time being, at least. Despite increased pressure from the streaming wars, Netflix is not ready to tackle password-sharing in the US yet. That could change soon, though.