Technology

This new software can track if you shared your Netflix account with someone

The Netflix Inc. application (app) is displayed on an Apple Inc. iPhone 5s surrounded by DVD mailers in this arranged photograph in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, April 14, 2015. Netflix Inc., the largest online subscription video service, is expected to release earnings figures on April 15. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Synmedia, a software specialist company, has introduced a new software at CES 2019 which can track if you share your streaming account information with anyone. Aptly named as Synmedia Credentials Sharing Insight, the software employees Artificial Intelligence techniques to track down and flag accounts that are being shared by more people than allowed.

Anyone who has a Netflix, Spotify or any other streaming account knows exactly what problem this software is aiming to solve. It’s not really a problem for the end users, rather it’s an expensive practice which has been bugging companies like Netflix for a long time.

Now Netflix gets around this problem by limiting the number of active screens that you can have with a subscription plan, but it does mean that a 4 screen plan can be used by 5, 10 people — as long as they can avoid binging their favorite show at the same time…

Synmedia is looking to help these companies cut down on credential sharing with this new software. Talking about their new software, Synamedia chief performance officer, Jean-Marc Racine said:

“Casual credentials sharing is becoming too expensive to ignore. 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.”

Any online streaming video service can buy Snymedia’s new insight tool and use it to monitor unusual activities on their users’ accounts, flagging any that seem suspicious, or blocking those who continue sharing their credentials with a large number of people.

It is still unclear how accurate this tool is and how many streaming services are planning to make use of it, but one thing is for sure, if Netflix does start using Synmedia’s new insight tool, there will be a lot of unhappy customers across Pakistan and India who will be deprived of viewing their favorite TV shows on the Netflix account which they borrowed from their very generous friend.