Entertainment

How to share your Netflix account without sharing your password

I wonder what Netflix thinks about this.

by
Josiah Motley
March 9, 2020

Image: KnowTechie

DoNotPay, the app that cancels your subscriptions for you and even deals with robocallers, is now offering a new feature that allows you to share logins with others, without actually giving them the password.

This could be used for a variety of different things, but one of the main uses DoNotPay is highlighting is the sharing of streaming passwords for services like Netflix and Hulu. Joshua Browder, DoNotPay’s founder and CEO, tells Fast Company that streaming service costs have become “ridiculous” and that no one should have to pay “$100 a month just to access what you could get before for much cheaper.”

DoNotPay’s new service (available as a Chrome extension) uses your existing cookies to transfer the session to another browser, allowing that user access to your streaming accounts. It’s a smart system, but I do wonder how long it will last before companies like Netflix find ways of restricting that type of access. If it’s even possible.

Here’s how to use DoNotPay’s new Chrome extension for Netflix

If you want to try out the feature for yourself, here’s how to do it.

Create a DoNotPay account
Download the DoNotPay Chrome extension.
Load up Netflix, Hulu, etc and click on the extension button
Image: KnowTechie
From there, you’ll generate a link with the option of sending the link directly to someone’s email address
Image: KnowTechie
The person receiving the link will then be prompted to log in or create their DoNotPay account
Image: Netflix

That’s it, once you’ve done that, the other person will be able to access your streaming account without the need of your password. There are a few additional notes regarding the service, however. For one, DoNotPay will only allow you to share each service with up to five people. Also, because it is using a Chrome extension, this can only be used on desktop and is not available through the actual streaming apps or through mobile use.

If you no longer wish to share access, you can also remove it through your DoNotPay account.

Overall, this is a pretty interesting feature for the growing DoNotPay service, but time will tell if it will actually catch on. Having to sign up for yet another service (even though it’s free) is becoming less and less desirable as we continue to rack up untold amounts of accounts across the web.

What do you think? Is this feature from DoNotPay something you’d use for things like Netflix? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.