While Netflix Wants to End Shared Accounts, Where’s iCloud Private Relay?

Netflix has had terms and conditions governing the use of its services for some time. Before this campaign against joint accounts started, you could already see that there are some limitations. The most notable was Try preventing access to Netflix via a VPN.

The move made sense Thanks to a VPN we can pretend to be in another country and access a catalog that Netflix may be required to restrict to a specific region due to legal rights. But now the topic takes on a new dimension, especially when we add iCloud Private Relay into the equation.

The risks associated with using IP address to locate us

The most important Mechanism Netflix uses to determine whether or not we share an account is our IP addressespecially its location. Particular caution is therefore required with VPNs. The truth is that as much as the use of commercial VPN solutions to improve our privacy is becoming more widespread, their presence in the market is still very small.

The situation is changing, but with iCloud Private Relay. The company’s service, not to be confused with a traditional VPN, has the same effect on our IP address: it obfuscates it. If we add that in the case of an Apple service, its usage is bound to keep increasing, we have several ingredients for that More than one wonders why Netflix says it shares the account when it doesn’t.

Remember that iCloud Private Relay only hides our IP address when we use Safari. For example, consider an account used only at home, on Apple TV, through the application on iPhone and iPad, and on Mac On iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV, Netflix gets our IP address and location directly. On the Mac that doesn’t have the Netflix application, iCloud Private Relay tells Netflix a different location when we use Safari. and thus We’ve served the big question that more than one can ask: “How do I split the account?”.

Fortunately, the situation has a solution. One option is to use another browser to access Netflix on our Mac, although it’s certainly the simplest Use the “Reload shows IP address” option. that Safari offers us so that Netflix is ​​clear where we stand.

A process, yes, that we need to remember and that adds a bit more complexity to use a service whose main attraction has always been easy access to content. We will see how Netflix applies the restrictions to joint accounts over the weeks and How do you improve your detection to avoid false positives?. In any case, it serves the question, where is iCloud Private Relay in all of this?