Netflix has criticised “false” reports it has been cracking down on customers using a work-around to watch media blocked in their area.
The company denied reports it had stepped up its attempts to block access via virtual private networks (VPNs).
Netflix said its existing policy against the use of VPNs to circumvent geographical content barriers remained unchanged.
But it said its service would still work via some VPNs.
“The claims that we have changed our policy on VPN are false,” said Netflix’s chief product officer Neil Hunt.
Speaking at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, he said: “People who are using a VPN to access our service from outside of the area will find that it still works exactly as it has always done.”
He was speaking in response to widespread claims that the popular media streaming firm had begun a crackdown on customers who used VPNs at the behest of studios unhappy at their licensing arrangements being ignored.
They followed complaints by Netflix users on Reddit that their normal VPN setups were no longer working.
Netflix said it did routinely block the work-arounds using “industry standard” techniques, but there was no special effort being undertaken to block more of them than usual.
