Jam permits you to safely share streaming app passwords – theinformationsuperhighway

I can't afford Netflix and HBO and Spotify and Disney + …? Now there is an app specifically designed to give friends passwords while ensuring the security of your credentials. It's called Jam and the questionable legal service started in private beta this morning. Founder John Backus told theinformationsuperhighway in his first interview about Jam that it allows users to store login credentials with local encryption, add friends to whom you can access your password for a selected service, and send to friends who are in Your subscription space for people is piggyback on.

Jam is just beginning to add users from its fast growing waiting list that you can join here. However, if users get access, use is still free. In the future, Jam could start a business by helping friends split the cost of subscriptions. There is clearly a demand. According to a Hub study of over 2,000 U.S. consumers, over 80% of 13-24 year olds have issued or used someone else's online TV password.

“The need for Jam was obvious. I don't want to find out that my ex-girlfriend's roommate has used my account again. Everyone shares passwords, but there is no safe way for consumers to do so. Why? “Backus asks. “In the corporate world, team password managers reflect the reality that multiple people have to regularly access the same account. Consumers don't have the same type of system, and that's bad for security and coordination. "

Fortunately, Backus is not an amateur when it comes to security. The Stanford Computer Science Dropout and Thiel Fellow founded the Identity Verification Startup Cognito and the decentralized credit scoring app Bloom. "I work with Bloom in the area of ​​cryptography and at Cognito with confidential data. I have a lot of experience in creating secure products with cryptography in the center.

He also tells me that everything stored in Jam is locally encrypted, even if he can't see it and nothing would be disclosed if the company were hacked. It uses protocols similar to 1Password, "Plain text credentials are never sent to our server, and your primary password is never sent," and "We use fairly straightforward public key cryptography." , Even though these protocols may be hardened, theinformationsuperhighway cannot verify that they are perfectly implemented in Jam and are completely secure.

Whether it is legal to simplify password sharing and whether Netflix and his colleagues are sending an army of lawyers to destroy Jam remains an open question. We asked several streaming companies for comments. When asked about Jam to help users violate their terms of use, Backus said on Twitter that "There are numerous websites where you can share your account with other users (with different restrictions). However, users often do not know these rules. "

However, sharing should typically be done on a customer's device or in their household, or paid for a family plan. We asked Netflix, Hulu, CBS, Disney and Spotify for a comment and received no comments in the recording. However, Spotify is The terms of use expressly prohibit the passing on of your password to another person or the use of the user name and password of another person. "The Netflix terms state:" The account holder should retain control over the Netflix-enabled devices used to access the service and should not disclose the password or details of the payment method associated with the account to anyone. "

Some may view Jam as a rip off of the original content creators, although Backus claims that “Jam doesn't try to pull money out of his pocket. Spotify offers (family plan sharing for people under one roof). Many other companies offer similar packages. I think people don't use things like that enough and it's an absolutely fair game. "

Netflix's chief product officer announced in October that the company was monitoring password sharing and looking for "consumer-friendly ways to cross those boundaries." The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, to which Netflix, Disney, Amazon, Comcast, and major film studios have announced, will announce that their members will work together to address "piracy".

This could lead to expensive legal problems for Jam. "My previous startups developed well, so I've had the pleasure of funding Jam myself, ”says Backus. But if lawsuits come up or the app becomes popular, he may have to find external investors. "I only started it about 5 hours ago, but I'm just saying that I am already updating my database level as the number of logins has increased. "

Ultimately, the goal is not to make money on a monthly subscription, as Backus expects from competitors, including the potential cost of browser extensions that share the password. Instead "Jam will make money by helping users save money. We want to make it easy for users to keep track of what they share and who they can use to make up the difference at the end of each month, ”explains Backus. It could require "either a small fee in return for automatically settling debts between users and / or calculating a percentage of the money we save users by recommending more efficient sharing setups". He later sees the opportunity to make recommendations for optimizing account management across Europe, networks of people creating native mobile apps.

"I think Jam is at the right time to keep up with various booming internet usage trends," said Backus. According to the hub, 42% of all US consumers used the password of another online TV service, while 69% of 13- to 24-year-olds watched Netflix with the password of another. "If popularity and exclusivity go hand in hand with often ambiguous, sometimes even non-existent rules for legitimate use, this is almost an invitation to subscribers divide the pleasure of having friends and family, ”says Peter Fondulas, principal at Hub and co-author of the study. “Wall Street has already made clear its displeasure, but still password divide is still very lively and healthy. "

From this perspective, one could compare Jam with sex education. The abstinence when sharing passwords clearly failed. At least people should learn how to do it safely.

PROTIP: Do you feel lonely? Go to your Netflix settings, click "Sign out of all devices" and wait a few hours.

Voilà! If you check your phone now you will find that you have several new texts from friends with whom you have not spoken in years.

– John Backus (@backus) January 15, 2020