While the headlines right now are that Netflix is raising prices in the United States as the streaming service invests heavily in new programs there is also more bad news.

• Sharing your Netflix password could soon be much harder to get away with.
• At CES 2019 in Las Vegas, video software provider Synamedia unveiled a creepy new AI-powered system designed to crack down on account sharing.
• Roughly 26 percent of millennials give out the credentials for video streaming services to other people.
• The new software will be able to analyze which users are logged in and where to quickly flag shared accounts.

Do you give your Netflix password to friends? AI that can track down users who illegally share accounts is unveiled.

Sharing your Netflix password could soon be much harder to get away with. At CES 2019 in Las Vegas, video software provider Synamedia unveiled a creepy new AI-powered system designed to crack down on account sharing.

The firm points to recent research from Magid, which found that roughly 26 percent of millennials give out the credentials for video streaming services to other people.

Its new software will be able to analyze which users are logged in and where to quickly flag shared accounts.

Synamedia’s new AI isn’t just for small-time fee avoiders. Additional research found that by 2021, credentials sharing will account for $9.9 billion of losses in pay-TV revenues. The company says the system can also be used to track down large-scale for-profit operations to slash the losses.

Synamedia Credentials Sharing Insight uses behavioral analytics and machine learning to keep tabs on credentials-sharing activity across streaming services.

While this software is currently rolling out the dominant streaming service is raising rates to its highest ever. All three of the company’s plans will increase in price by $1-$2. The standard $11 plan, for example, will increase to $13 per month.

The price hikes will be applied to all existing members over the next few months. New members will be charged the new price immediately. Its $8 plan will go up to $9 and its $14 plan will go up to $16 a month.

The good news is that Netflix has been spending billions on new content — at least $8 billion last year, based on the company’s own expectations from 2017. The streaming service also announced in October that it planned to take on $2 billion in new debt.