Netflix has just made a small but significant change to the way it handles account logins. Now you can disconnect someone remotely with just one click.
Called "Device Access and Management," the new account access control launches today (November 15), and as described in a Netflix blog post (opens in a new tab), it lives under settings. standard of your account. In it, you can see all the devices that are currently using or recently streaming through your account and disconnect them with just one click.
Netflix says that they are people who, for example, travel, log into their account at a hotel or even at a friend's house and forget to log out.
Yes of course.
It's also about reigning over the sharing of account credentials. Former lovers, friends and distant relatives with whom you no longer speak; your access to your account is probably about to end.
The change also comes as Netflix actively seeks to stop what it sees as rampant password sharing and has tested a €2.99 surcharge for adding additional members to the out-of-home account.
This last "feature" could be seen as preparation for the large-scale implementation of this surcharge. Knowing that you can quickly remove squatters from your Netflix account before the company starts charging you is a good thing.
It's been a rollercoaster year for Netflix, which began with declining subscribers and multiple show cancellations as it tried to cut costs. The upheaval led Netflix to do something we thought it would never do: release an ad-supported level.
The €6,99 per month (€4,99 per month in the UK) tier provides the bulk of Netflix's current content library, along with 4-5 minutes of ads per hour. Not everyone is happy with that.
As for this new "Device Access & Management", we quickly located it in our Netflix account management under "Security & Privacy", and found 21 devices connected to our account. Most related to the devices used by the author.
Each record includes the name of the device, whose account is used, the date and time of the last monitoring, and a location.
The last bit is probably the most useful. If you see a place you don't recognize, you can check if it's, for example, a place you recently traveled to or if someone is illegally sharing your account hundreds of miles away.
If you no longer want this device to use the account, simply click "Sign Out". Whoever was watching will be booted and won't be able to log in again without the proper credentials.
It's a whole new world of Netflix account sharing reduction.