How to check if someone is stealing your Netflix: Tool allows people to see who is using their account

You might well have given away your login to huge numbers of people in the past — and they could be squatting in your video service, messing up all of your recommendations

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings delivers a keynote address in front of an image of actor Kevin Spacey from 'House of Cards' and an image from the show 'Orange is the New Black' at CES 2016 at The Venetian Las Vegas on January 6, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

People might be sitting in your Netflix, and watching films while you pay for it — all while you are unaware.

Netflix accounts are often used by people they borrowed them from years before. They might also have been sold on the huge black market for accounts — where logins are traded online and allow people to get access cheaply, by using stolen credentials.

But there is an easy way to tell if somebody is using your account.

The first notice you could get might be that films appear to be being watched without you knowing it.

But the quickest way to find out is to head to the settings and choose the “Viewing activity” option. You can then click on the “See recent account access” page, which will show you all of the people who have been using your account.

You’ll be given information including where the account has been accessed from, what device was used and when the films were watched. If there’s anything in there you don’t know about, or haven’t watched, then it’s likely someone else is in your account.

If you do find suspect usage, then it’s easy to kick people off. It’s important to do so because one of those rogue users could change the password at any time, and has access to sensitive information.

First, you’ll want to change the password to something that people won’t be able to guess. And then, while you do that, you can choose to kick everyone that’s currently using your account off, meaning that they’ll have to log in again.