This Netflix tweet about sharing passwords has aged terribly

A tweet from Netflix about sharing passwords has aged terribly.

Even if you’re not necessarily meant to do it, swapping Netflix passwords has been around as long as the service itself. But not anymore.

Netflix is now planning to test letting account holders pay an additional fee to “easily and securely” share access with those outside their household.

But in March 2017, the streaming service tweeted: “Love is sharing a password.” Oof.

Twitter / Screenshot

In its terms of service, Netflix does say access “may not be shared with individuals beyond your household” - but that hasn’t stopped people from doing it anyway.

In a blog post, Chengyi Long, director of product innovation at Netflix said that over the coming weeks, they will launch and test two new features in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru.

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The first is the ability to add extra members, or “sub accounts”, for up to two people they don’t live with.

The extra members will receive their own profile, recommendations, login, and password, but for a lower price ($2.99 USD in Costa Rica, equivalent to around £2.25).

They will also roll out the ability to transfer a profile to a new account. This means if people create a new account or an extra member sub account, they can retain their viewing history, My List, and personalised recommendations.

Long said: “We recognize that people have many entertainment choices, so we want to ensure any new features are flexible and useful for members, whose subscriptions fund all our great TV and films.

“We’ll be working to understand the utility of these two features for members in these three countries before making changes anywhere else in the world.”

People have been quick to reshare the old "love is sharing a password" tweet from Netflix, with one remarking it "aged like milk":

Earlier this month Netflix announced a price hike of £1 per month for their basic and standard plans, and a £2 price increase for their premium plan.

Similar price rises were announced in Ireland.

The prices were raised as the streaming giant needed the cash to invest in “best in class UK productions” and to “offer a wide variety of curated quality shows and films”, it claimed.

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