Account sharing, also known as credential sharing, is the process of sharing login information with multiple users to access online accounts or services. This can include sharing information like

e-mail address An email address identifies an email box to which messages are delivered. While early messaging systems used a variety of formats for addressing, today, email addresses follow a set of specific rules originally standardized by the Internet Engineeri ...

es,

username A user is a person who uses a computer or Computer network, network Service (systems architecture), service. A user often has a user account and is identified to the system by a username (or user name). Some software products provide serv ...

s and

password A password, sometimes called a passcode, is secret data, typically a string of characters, usually used to confirm a user's identity. Traditionally, passwords were expected to be memorized, but the large number of password-protected services t ...

s for

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

accounts,

subscription services The subscription business model is a business model in which a customer must pay a recurring price at regular intervals for access to a Product (business), product or Service (business), service. The model Publication by subscription, was pioneer ...

, gaming platforms or other

online service An online service provider (OSP) can, for example, be an Internet service provider, an email provider, a news provider (press), an entertainment provider (music, movies), a search engine, an e-commerce site, an online banking site, a health site, ...

Reasons for account sharing

Account sharing is a common practice, especially among younger users who may not have the financial resources to pay for multiple accounts or subscriptions. It is also commonly used among families or groups of friends who want to access a shared account or service. Another reason could be to gain special features that depends on a single account like special items in a game account. People may also share passwords with their

significant other The term significant other (SO) has different uses in psychology and colloquial language. Colloquially, "significant other" is used as a gender-neutral term for a person's partner in an intimate relationship without disclosing or presuming a ...

s as a symbol of affection or absolute trust.

Reasons against account sharing

Account sharing is prohibited by the terms of service of many online accounts, such as

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

and

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

. It can result in account suspensions or even termination, possibly causing users to lose access to important data or services. On the other hand, account sharing can lose money for the service the account is being shared for. Account sharing can also make it easier for hackers to gain access to multiple accounts using a single set of login credentials. This can lead to sensitive data being compromised or accounts being taken over by unauthorized users. The person the information is shared with could act careless and not secure enough with the login data or could steal the information for other purposes as a social engineering-strategy.

Prevention

Some services offer combined accounts, such as multiple family accounts (

Family Sharing Family Sharing is a service introduced in iOS 8 by Apple Inc. in June 2014, that enables the sharing of purchases from Apple stores. Six members in a group can share purchases from App Store, iTunes Store, and Apple Books Store, an Apple Music fa ...

) with special

child safety Child protection (also called child welfare) is the safeguarding of children from violence, exploitation, abuse, abandonment, and neglect. It involves identifying signs of potential harm. This includes responding to allegations or suspicions ...

options or

software license A software license is a legal instrument governing the use or redistribution of software. Since the 1970s, software copyright has been recognized in the United States. Despite the copyright being recognized, most companies prefer to sell lic ...

for multiple company accounts at a cheaper price to prevent account sharing. Another system to make account sharing more difficult is the

Multi-factor authentication Multi-factor authentication (MFA; two-factor authentication, or 2FA) is an electronic authentication method in which a user is granted access to a website or application only after successfully presenting two or more distinct types of evidence ...

which often requires the sharer to instantly share the information on their device with the receiver. In 2022,

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

limited where accounts could be used, based on

IP address An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is assigned to a device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. IP addresses serve two main functions: network interface i ...

es. Their terms of service state that "personal and non-commercial use only and may not be shared with individuals beyond your household". The company later released paid options for account sharing, and is expected to remove free account sharing in 2023.

Legality

In the United Kingdom, sharing passwords for certain services, such as streaming services, without authorization is considered copyright infringement.

References

Identity management Internet fraud {{Improve categories, date=June 2023