DoNotPay Browser Extension Allows You to Securely Share Subscription Services

DoNotPay, the company behind the AI-lawyer developed to deal with parking tickets, has launched a Chrome browser extension that allows you to share streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+, or Spotify, without sharing your password.

As VentureBeat reports the extension, which is called ‘DoNotPay Subscription Sharing,’ works by sharing a logged-in session rather than your login credentials.

Whenever you successfully login to a service such as Netflix, it creates a session allowing you to navigate the service and watch streams without needing to repeatedly re-enter you password.

DoNotPay simply takes a copy of the session and any associated cookies and transfers them to another user's machine.

Joshua Browder, the founder of DoNotPay, says that the cookies are encrypted when they are sent from one user to another, and can only be seen by those you are sharing your login with.

After the extension is installed, verification is required via SMS two-factor authentication.

You can then log into any service you have an account for and hit the ‘Generate Link’ button. That will create a link to share via email with someone else who has the extension installed.

Theoretically, you could share as many logins as you like using this method, but it’s worth noting that many subscription services have a limit on how many devices can be assigned and active per account.

Anyone sharing your account will be able to make some changes - such as adding or removing programs from your Netflix watchlist - but will not be able to change passwords or two-factor authentication. 

In the original version of the extension, DoNotPay allowed people to charge for access to their logins, but that functionality has been removed because it “ruined the spirit of sharing links with friends," Browder said.

The extension is free to use, but expect to see advertisements for DoNotPay's other services which cost $3 per month.

There's plans to add support for Firefox and potentially the DoNotPay mobile application in future.

It's also worth pointing out that, while streaming accounts are the most obvious service to share, the extension should work for a much wider range of services, such as Amazon Prime.

DoNotPay, the company behind the AI-lawyer developed to deal with parking tickets, has launched a Chrome browser extension that allows you to share streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+, or Spotify, without sharing your password.

As VentureBeat reports the extension, which is called ‘DoNotPay Subscription Sharing,’ works by sharing a logged-in session rather than your login credentials.

Whenever you successfully login to a service such as Netflix, it creates a session allowing you to navigate the service and watch streams without needing to repeatedly re-enter you password.

DoNotPay simply takes a copy of the session and any associated cookies and transfers them to another user's machine.

Joshua Browder, the founder of DoNotPay, says that the cookies are encrypted when they are sent from one user to another, and can only be seen by those you are sharing your login with.

After the extension is installed, verification is required via SMS two-factor authentication.

You can then log into any service you have an account for and hit the ‘Generate Link’ button. That will create a link to share via email with someone else who has the extension installed.

Theoretically, you could share as many logins as you like using this method, but it’s worth noting that many subscription services have a limit on how many devices can be assigned and active per account.

Anyone sharing your account will be able to make some changes - such as adding or removing programs from your Netflix watchlist - but will not be able to change passwords or two-factor authentication. 

In the original version of the extension, DoNotPay allowed people to charge for access to their logins, but that functionality has been removed because it “ruined the spirit of sharing links with friends," Browder said.

The extension is free to use, but expect to see advertisements for DoNotPay's other services which cost $3 per month.

There's plans to add support for Firefox and potentially the DoNotPay mobile application in future.

It's also worth pointing out that, while streaming accounts are the most obvious service to share, the extension should work for a much wider range of services, such as Amazon Prime.