Key Takeaways

• Disney+ is cracking down on password sharing outside the primary household, following in the footsteps of Netflix.
• The new Terms of Service will allow Disney+ to analyze account usage to determine compliance and may lead to penalties.
• Users caught sharing passwords may face limitations on their account or even termination of their account.
• People making use of shared passwords will need to set up their own accounts and pay the full subscription price.

Just like many other TV and film streaming services, Disney+ is now cracking down on people sharing their passwords. But how will Disney+’s crackdown on password sharing impact you?

Disney+ Is Cracking Down on People Sharing Passwords

In August 2023, Disney’s CEO, Bob Iger, threatened to follow Netflix’s lead by cracking down on people sharing accounts outside their household. As reported by ZDNet, in a meeting with investors, Iger described the problem as “a real priority” that the company was actively seeking to tackle.

Then, in September 2023, Disney+ followed through on its threat, emailing Canadian subscribers that, “Unless otherwise permitted by your service tier, you may not share your subscription outside of your household.”

In February 2024, TechRadar reported that Disney+ subscribers in the US had started receiving similarly worded emails.

Among several changes to its terms of service, Disney+ stated that “We’re adding limitations on sharing your account outside of your household.” With a household being described as “the collection of devices associated with a primary personal residence.”

How Is Disney+ Going to Know When Passwords Are Being Shared?

Just like Hulu’s crackdown on password sharing, Disney+’s new ToS are set to come into effect from March 14, 2024. Which is when Disney+ could “analyze the use of your account to determine compliance” with its new rules around password sharing. So it’s at this stage that anyone found to be sharing their Disney+ password with people outside their household may be required to act.

Disney+ has not explained how it will determine compliance with its new rules, but it will likely revolve around analyzing how many devices are logged in to a single account at once, and where those devices are located.

There are ways to mask the information such as IP addresses that will allow Disney+ to follow through on its threats. However, the average Disney+ user will likely lose this game of cat and mouse and end up having to stop sharing their password with people outside their household.

How Will the Disney+ Crackdown on Password Sharing Affect You?

Whether this crackdown will affect you depends primarily on whether you’re sharing your Disney+ password with people not living at the same address. If not, then you have nothing to worry about, and can continue using Disney+ as you have been.

However, if people living elsewhere are accessing your Disney+ subscription, you may fall foul of Disney’s crackdown. Disney+ has stated that the accounts found to be flouting these rules may be limited or even terminated. The latter is pretty self-explanatory, but what limitations may be placed on an account found to be shared across households remains unclear.

The likelihood is that users will have to select a primary address for the account, and anyone found accessing it from elsewhere will be booted out. But we won’t know for sure until the rules around Disney+ password sharing are enforced in the US from March 14, 2024. And users start reporting what kind of punishments they have faced.

One issue is that, unlike Netflix, which offers an Extra Members feature, at the time of writing, Disney+ is demanding all subscribers have their own separate accounts. So, if you are caught sharing your password, the people you’re sharing it with will need to set up their own account and pay the full Disney+ subscription price.