Your Netflix account contains sacred information that describes your taste in media and exposes how much time you spend streaming. This is data you probably want to keep private. Not to mention you’re spending $10.99/month, so you don’t want someone streaming for free while your left footing the bill. Surprisingly, this happens all too often because people forget to log out of their accounts.
Consider these common scenarios, you log into your friend’s laptop when you’re over at their place to marathon Stranger Things or you might share your account password with a significant other as a symbol of trust or maybe during a family get to together you logged into your account, so you could stream a holiday film. There might be a hand full of web browsers that have your saved account and password. Next time you want to test someone’s trust, log them into your Netflix account, leave without logging out, and investigate the outcome.
People Who Don’t Try to Hide the Fact They’re Using Your Account
It easier than you might think to fly under the radar when using someone’s account. If they’re not trying to hide it then you’ll obviously know someone’s on your account because the recently viewed section would be a dead giveaway. Another straightforward approach is the recommended section where you might see a ton of silent films, but you’ve never watched one a day in your life.
However, for those who are attempting to be inconspicuous, Netflix makes covering your tracks quite simple. First, go to the “viewing activity” section of your account and you’ll see a list of everything an account has watched in totality. With a quick click of a button, you can delete all your recent activity. Netflix states that all deleted history will be removed within 24 hours, so you might be trying your luck, but if you know the account user well that task will be a piece of cake. Not to mention that this time frame adds more suspense and drama to the whole scenario. Leeching off a Netflix account has turned into a game of cat and mouse.
How to Catch People Who Are Trying to Go Unnoticed
Although you can easily ease your mind of these thoughts by changing your password, that takes out all the fun of this detective case. Plus, if you do just change your password you won’t know if people have been using your account. Instead, follow these steps and discover who’s been abusing their relationship with you. If you log into your account, and click “viewing activity”, and then click “see recent access” you’ll be able to see information on the time, date, location, IP addresses, and even the types of devices that were used under your account. If anything seems odd like “iPhone” is listed under devices but you’ve never owned an iPhone you’ll know someone is abusing their trust. Perhaps it was an ex-lover who seems to think that using your account is a form of revenge or maybe its friend who believes it’s illogical to pay for her own account when she/he can use yours.
Although deducting whether someone is using your account can be amusing at the end of the day it’s incredibly important to change your passwords periodically. Although this scenario only involves small monthly payments, this scenario could be taken to an extreme if someone had access to your billing accounts, personal saving, or even social media accounts. This may result in you losing all your money, having loans taken out in your name, or ruining your reputation. You should be scarce with the amount of information you share with others and personally log out of every device you use.
