A NEW service will allow streaming services such as Netflix to detect if you are sharing your account password with multiple users.
Sharing your Netflix details with a relative so they can check out Bird Box is probably something we’ve all done.
Before you know it, your second cousin once removed who lives in Ballina is using your account to binge watch Orange is the New Black.
However British firm Synamedia’s new Credentials Sharing Insight, exhibited at CES 2019, aims to ‘combat the rapid rise in account sharing between friends and families’.
Unusual sharing activity
Synamedia says that until now, content providers have turned a blind eye to casual password sharing as it helps market their service to new audiences.
But that won’t be the case for much longer.
Synamedia’s AI will monitor accounts in real time to detect unusual sharing activity, such as a single account being used in different locations or being accessed from multiple devices at the same time.
While Synamedia says it will help providers shut down large-scale, for-profit account sharing run by fraudsters, regular users will also be targeted for ‘upselling’.
Subscribers detected having multiple users would be offered a premium shared account service that includes a pre-authorised level of password sharing and a higher number of simultaneous users.
'Keeping honest people honest'
“Casual credentials sharing is becoming too expensive to ignore,” said Jean Marc Racine of Synamedia. “Our new solution gives operators the ability to take action.
“Many casual users will be happy to pay an additional fee for a premium, shared service with a greater number of concurrent users.
“It’s a great way to keep honest people honest while benefiting from an incremental revenue stream.”
Media research firm Magid found that 26 per cent of millennials share passwords for video streaming services.
Meanwhile Parks Associates predicts that by 2021, $9.9billion of pay-tv revenues and $1.2billion of streaming revenues will be lost to password sharing.
You'd better watch The Haunting of Hill House while you still have the chance.
