LOS ANGELES, Calif. — The days of sharing your Netflix account with friends and extended family may be numbered. The streaming giant appears to be running a test cracking down on password sharing.

As first reported by The Streamable, a select number of Netflix users began receiving a message this week asking them to verify their accounts via email or text. If they can’t, they’re prompted to start their own account with a free 30-day trial.

“If you don’t live with the owner of this account, you need your own account to keep watching,” the message reads, according to screenshots. It’s not yet clear if users need to be on the same IP address to be considered in the same household.

Earlier this week, some Netflix subscribers began to notice that it might be a bit harder to “borrow” someone’s password.https://t.co/ZN3GTECdKR pic.twitter.com/uMucB4C43l

— Michelle Manafy (@michellemanafy) March 12, 2021

Netflix has commented on the crackdown in a statement, saying, “This test is designed to help ensure that people using Netflix accounts are authorized to do so.”

Although it’s commonplace now to share passwords with others, especially during the pandemic, Netflix’s terms of use do explicitly say its service and any of its content “are for personal use and non-commercial use only and may not be shared with individuals beyond your household.”

Netflix has been the king of streaming for years now, but with more and more platforms popping up, customers are having to choose which services to keep paying for and the company is likely trying to retain its dominance in the market.

A survey conducted by research company Magid found about a third of subscribers to platforms like Netflix share their password with someone outside their household. With so many services to pay for, people often split the burden, each paying for a few and sharing their accounts with each other.

As for Netflix pricing, after a 30-day trial, you can pay $8.99 a month for the streamer’s “basic” plan, where only one screen can stream at any given time. The next plan, “standard,” costs $13.99 per month and Netflix can be streamed on two screens at a time. The company’s “premium” plan costs $17.99 a month and four screens can stream at the same time.

CINCINNATI —

Airbnb says efforts to cut down on unauthorized parties in Cincinnati are working. The company banned all parties and events at Airbnb listings in August of last year.

Ahead of the Fourth of July holiday weekend, the company is doubling down on those efforts. Changes include blocking guests who do not have a history of positive reviews from booking one-night reservations of entire homes.

Efforts to curb large gatherings during the pandemic led the company to restrict guests under age 25 from certain bookings last summer.

"In the past year, this technology has blocked or redirected potentially risky reservation attempts from more than 2,000 people in Cincinnati," Airbnb said in a news release.

In August, a handyman was shot in Cincinnati's Pendleton neighborhood as he tried to break up a large party at an Airbnb.

"Steven was someone who was really helpful for a lot of us and to see that happen to him was heartbreaking," said Eric Haberthier, president of the Greater Cincinnati AirBnB Owners Association. "The interesting thing about AirBnBs and illegal parties is that it's been a problem for the past 15 months or so, since COVID showed up, but it was really more of an issue at the beginning, the first four months or so."

Haberthier said the association made a list of best practices for Airbnb hosts, which included tips to prevent parties. Those tips include fostering good relationships with neighbors.

"You know when something's not quite right. If it's someone that's local that's planning on staying at your place and they want to have a lot of people, and they're making the reservation on short notice, chances are you should have a conversation first," he said. "We don't want to be seen as party pads in the city. It'd be a terrible reputation. It's not a sustainable way to build a small business. It's not the way we want our property to be treated."