Last month, Disney announced its plans to start cracking down on password sharing, just like what Netflix recently implemented. Disney has now started rolling out its new threats to block password sharing, beginning with Disney+ subscribers in Canada.
As reported by The Verge, Disney sent an email to subscribers in Canada informing them of this change. The details on how exactly Disney plans to block password sharing are still vague, and the email doesn’t add a whole lot of context. “We’re implementing restrictions on your ability to share your account or login credentials outside of your household,” Disney says.
Disney has also updated its website in Canada to again inform subscribers that password sharing is prohibited. A single Disney+ subscription can only be used in your “household,” a term the company says means “the collection of devices associated with your primary personal residence that are used by the individuals who reside therein.”
Mobile Syrup points out that Disney has also updated its subscriber agreement to say:
We may, in our sole discretion, analyze the use of your account to determine compliance with this Agreement. If we determine that you have violated this Agreement, we may limit or terminate access to the Service and/or take any other steps as permitted by this Agreement (including those set forth in Section 6 of this Agreement).
You will be responsible for any use of your account by your household, including compliance with this section.
The agreement specifies that the changes will go into effect on November 1 starting in Canada. When Disney first announced its plans to implement new measures to crack down on password sharing, Bob Iger said technical implementations to do so might not go into effect until sometime in 2024.
For context, Netflix’s system prevents users from sharing passwords with people outside of their households by requiring a device logged into a Netflix account to log into the home Wi-Fi network of that account at least once every 31 days.
It’s hard to parse exactly what this week’s changes to the subscriber agreement mean. The language seems to suggest that Disney will have ways of monitoring accounts for password sharing, but this could just be a threat rather than a promise for now.
As a reminder, Disney+ and Hulu are also about to get more expensive. Here’s a breakdown of the changes, which will go into effect on October 12.
- Disney+ with ads: $7.99 per month (unchanged)
- Disney+ ad-free: $13.99 per month (up from $10.99 per month)
- Hulu with ads: $7.99 per month (unchanged)
- Hulu ad-free: $17.99 per month (up from $14.99 per month)
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