As viewing traffic on Netflix hits all-time highs during the pandemic, the streaming giant is rolling out a new feature aimed at ramping up security and privacy: PIN-protected profiles.
The feature prevents unauthorized individuals from using a Netflix account, which can wreck a user’s personalized recommendations.
Personal identification numbers are promoted as a parental control feature to keep kids from accessing adult content, but they can be used on any profile, regardless of the parental control setting, to lock out roommates, friends and partners attempting to access a viewing profile.
Netflix rolled out the new feature with its latest suite of parental controls, accessible through any user’s settings on mobile or desktop. Another feature allows users to remove series or films by title. When applied, the blocked titles no longer appear in that particular profile.
Netflix is seeing a historic surge in traffic as people stay home to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
The seven-episode docuseries “Tiger King” is a monster hit among viewers. The series, which explores the world of private zoos and big cat breeding while tracking a maze of complex relationships, motives and business dealings, is the most-watched Netflix show in the United States over the past two weeks.
Citing estimates from Nielsen, Variety reports that the Netflix original series hit 34.3 million unique views in just 10 days after its release on March 20th, topping season 2 of “Stranger Things,” with 31.2 million unique views in its first 10 days, and “Stranger Things 3,” with 20.5 million over the same period.
“Buzz built quickly for the show, with ‘Tiger King’s’ daily average minute audiences jumping to over 1 million by day three; 2 million by day seven; and 4 million by day nine.”