User complains that all of a sudden they can only get Netflix originals from home. Netflix suggests they call their ISP and ask why their IP is associated with proxy/vpn activity.
The assumption of the article seems to be that Netflix is performing some action on it's own to determine whether a residential user is on a VPN, and that this type of response is unhelpful buck-passing. But IIRC, for years now ISPs in the US have had the green light to monetize customer metadata. It seems possible that either Netflix or an industry-backed anti-piracy entity is buying lists with timestamped VPN usage per IP (based on packet traffic patterns?) for Netflix to compare to their usage time-stamps per IP and just assuming causation.
I don't know how far-fetched this is, but it fits with Netflix's response to these people's inquiries and it also removes the question of how Netflix might know if a user was streaming over a VPN through thier own residential ISP connection.
The assumption of the article seems to be that Netflix is performing some action on it's own to determine whether a residential user is on a VPN, and that this type of response is unhelpful buck-passing. But IIRC, for years now ISPs in the US have had the green light to monetize customer metadata. It seems possible that either Netflix or an industry-backed anti-piracy entity is buying lists with timestamped VPN usage per IP (based on packet traffic patterns?) for Netflix to compare to their usage time-stamps per IP and just assuming causation.
I don't know how far-fetched this is, but it fits with Netflix's response to these people's inquiries and it also removes the question of how Netflix might know if a user was streaming over a VPN through thier own residential ISP connection.