Netflix Denies Crackdown On VPN Users

If you're a regular Netflix user, there's a good chance you've used a VPN at some point to get access to a different region's library — Australians, for example, have long used VPNs to subscribe to the service in the absence of a local option (though that'll be changing soon), and others simply use VPNs to watch shows not offered in their own country. Over the weekend, rumbles surfaced stating Netflix was starting to crackdown on those users, but now the company has spoken up to say such claims are false.

Concerns that Netflix had finally bowed to demands and started cracking down on VPN users surfaced over the weekend as more users were seeing errors trying to connect to the video streaming service. In addition, some users were reporting having their account banned, all of which pointed to what seemed to be a proactive move on Netflix's part.

At CES 2015 this week, however, Netflix has denied claims that it is doing any such thing, saying that, "The claims that we have changed our policy on VPN are false." The company's Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt went on to say that VPN users trying to access Netflix "will find that it still works exactly as it has always done."

That doesn't mean the complaints weren't valid, as getting an account banned for using a VPN isn't terribly uncommon. Netflix confirmed that has been blocking such outside access regularly, but the notion that some specific crackdown is taking place is not correct.

SOURCE: BBC