Re: Netflix VPN detection - actual engineer needed

[Owen DeLong <owen () delong com>]

> On Jun 6, 2016, at 9:01 AM, Laszlo Hanyecz <laszlo () heliacal net> wrote:
>
>
> On 2016-06-06 15:21, Tore Anderson wrote:
> > But Netflix shouldn't have any need to ask in the first place. Their
> > customers need to log in to their own personal accounts in order to
> > access any content, when they do Netflix can discover their addresses.
> >
> > Tore
>
> Hey there's an idea, how about they ASK the users where they are located, instead of telling them where they are 
> located.  Presumably a user will have a new billing address when they move to a new place.  That ought to be a lot 
> more accurate than lookup based on a static map of number -> location.  I don't think this is too crazy of an idea.. 
> my car insurance company asks me what zip code I keep my cars in.  Netflix could ask people what zip code they watch 
> video from.
>
> -Laszlo

The problem is that some users travel and they try to watch Netflix using their home account in far away lands.

Now you and I may think this should be perfectly fine and I suspect Netflix would like to agree with us, but I’m sure 
many content providers have their crania planted so firmly up their collective recta that they believe this is akin to 
piracy.

That’s why they don’t want to allow users who are actually in <prohibited_place> to claim to be in <permitted_place> by 
using a VPN.

The tactic being used for this measurement is silly to the point of absurd (why not use RTT measurements instead), but 
that’s what I suspect is driving this.

Owen