Skip to main content

Worried your Netflix account has been hacked? Try this easy fix

website unogs lets users browse netflix global catalog streaming orange is new black
Image used with permission by copyright holder
No one wants to have that Goldilocks and the Three Bears feeling: “Who’s been signing into my Netflix account?” Getting hacked is disconcerting, even if all the culprit managed to do was watch 13 straight hours of Daredevil. No matter how impressed you are with their dedication, taking away their access is still your priority number one. Fortunately, there’s an easy fix, as described by Motherboard‘s Rachel Pick, who recently found her account infiltrated by a Narcos fan.

Since Netflix accounts are often shared, it can be hard to be sure that your account has actually been infiltrated. If you notice movies and TV shows showing up on your list of “Recently Watched” content that seem out of place, that’s a strong clue. Pick initially thought her account was simply experiencing a glitch, but then she realized that her viewing history was more than a little suspicious.

Recommended Videos

After consulting with a colleague, she went to the website haveibeenpwned.com. There, she was able to check out the email address associated with her account. Lo and behold, she found that a hacker had shared her information with the public, making it freely available to anyone who wanted to binge watch without getting their own Netflix subscription.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

If you see strange activity on your account, you can follow Pick’s lead and investigate whether or not you’ve been pwned. Of course, if you’d rather be safe than sorry, you can skip that step and go straight to the fix: change your password. The important thing to remember is that you should change the password of any other account that uses the same one. Quora recommends making your new password longer and more difficult.

Fortunately, as Pick points out, Netflix obscures your credit card information, so the Goldilocks in your account is basically just after the TV show that’s “just right.” While inconvenient, it shouldn’t lead to any larger problems.

Stephanie Topacio Long
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Stephanie Topacio Long is a writer and editor whose writing interests range from business to books. She also contributes to…
Apple TV has quietly been on board the FAST train all this time
Streaming apps that can be connected to Apple TV.

Apple TV, insofar as the name is concerned, is a bit of a mess. It's hardware — the Apple TV 4K box is still the best streaming hardware you can buy. It's a streaming service unto itself — Apple TV+ is Apple's take on HBO. And its software — tvOS technically is the name of the operating system, but there's also a "TV" app ... on Apple TV.

The Apple TV app itself also is, shall we say, a bit busy. It's home not just to Apple TV+, but also to exclusive sports like MLS Season Pass and Friday Night Baseball. And if you've ever bought a movie or show from Apple, you'll find them there, too. And if you're signed in to another streaming app that plays nice with Apple's TV app — and there are a lot of them — you'll find that content in there, too.

Read more
Netflix’s new account-sharing rules punish students for being students
Five kids in uniforms standing side by side in a scene from Love 101 on Netflix.

As a Canadian, I am now going to be among the first lucky people to contend with Netflix’s new rules around account sharing. As a parent of one university student and one soon-to-be university student, I’m also among the first people who will have to tell their kid -- in true Canadian style -- sorry, no more Netflix for you.

See, my son attends school about 45 minutes away from home. Not far at all by university (or college for my American friends) standards, but still far enough that he no longer qualifies as a household member, according to Netflix.

Read more
Netflix expands its spatial audio, number of devices that can download content
Netflix app icon on Apple TV.

Netflix Premium subscribers are getting an enhancement to their service starting today. The streaming company has increased the number of devices that can download content for offline viewing from four to six. It's also expanding the spatial audio feature it launched in 2022, making spatial audio available on its top 700 titles. The new features are included in the current price of a Premium plan.

Spatial audio on Netflix is similar to Dolby Atmos -- it creates a much more immersive, 3D-like audio experience where sounds feel like they're moving independently of the rest of the soundtrack. However, unlike Dolby Atmos, Netflix's spatial audio can be experienced on any device that has stereo speakers whether they are Dolby Atmos-capable or not.

Read more