New AI tech could put an end to Netflix password sharing

Spotify has already given non-blood relatives sharing a family plan the boot and now a new London-based company Synamedia is looking to crack down on people sharing their Netflix passwords.

As reported by Variety, Synamedia has launched Credentials Sharing Insight which uses artificial intelligence to weed out if you and your best mate are both watching Bojack Horseman on Netflix’s dime.

While most streaming services attempt to curtail password sharing by limiting the number of simultaneous streams happening on one account, Synamedia will go one step further by sifting through your precious, precious data.

Synamedia chief product officer Jean-Marc Racine claims that the company will be looking at two specific indicators to determine if a person is at high risk of being a password sharer; location (if two people are watching from the same account 1000kms away) and general usage patterns (like if someone was watching 24/7).

From there Racine says that Synamedia will train AI to be able to score users on a scale of 1-10 to determine if they are sharing passwords or not.

While streaming services could go the Spotify route and cancel accounts that bend the rules, Racine also indicates that the new tech could be a great opportunity for streaming platforms to upsell users to a tier with more simultaneous streams.

This might not seem like a big ticket issue due to the prevalence of password sharing, (be honest, how many people watch on the account you use right now?) but research company Parks Associates recently estimated that the industry could lose as much as US$9.9 billion due to password sharing by 2021.

All of this, unfortunately, means that the time might be nigh to stop leaching Netflix from your ex-partners, cousin’s mum.

Capitalism ruins everything…

Get unlimited access to the coverage that shapes our culture.

Subscribe to Rolling Stone magazine

Subscribe to Rolling Stone magazine