Netflix has announced the rollout of a new feature that allows the user profiles listed under one account to be moved to their own account. While the new profile-transfer ability can make it easier for users who want to move to their own account, some users are blasting the feature after receiving an email announcing its launch. Here’s what you need to know.

• What is Netflix profile? All Netflix accounts allow for multiple users to be set up. Each user has a profile that allows them to create their own watchlists and more. Netflix user profiles let, for example, a family of four each have their own user profile under just one account, so mom, dad, and the kids can each manage their profiles as if they had their own subscriptions to Netflix instead of just one.
• Why are Netflix user profiles bad for Netflix? While user profiles make the Netflix experience better, in a way they harm Netflix itself. That’s because profiles make it much easier for people to share their Netflix accounts with people who do not live in the same household. A paying Netflix subscriber could simply set up user profiles for her friends, and those friends can then access and organize their own Netflix experience without needing to subscribe to the service. And because the profiles keep watchlists and ratings separate, the user sharing her account won’t see her Netflix experience altered in any way.
• What is a Netflix profile transfer? It’s a new feature from Netflix that allows people to transfer a profile they have under someone else’s account to their own Netflix account. Netflix sent an email to primary account holders that explained the feature like this: “People move. Families grow. Relationships change. Now people on your account can transfer a profile—including recommendations, viewing history, My List, saved games, settings and more—to their own membership that they pay for.” However, the email announcing the new feature has not gone over well with some Netflix users.
• But isn’t the feature useful? Yeah, it is, for some. Netflix is right that it is helpful for users to have the ability to take their profile with them from one account if they want to subscribe to their own account.
• What’s the problem then? Mainly that some people have interpreted the new “feature” as a ploy by Netflix to get people who share their Netflix account with others to report on themselves. Skeptical users see it as a way for Netflix to crack down on password sharing (something the company has openly said it intends to do) by enlisting the help of its own password-sharing users. The email frames the feature like this, “There is no charge for allowing this feature” and it then instructs the account holder to “Simply click the button below to turn on this feature and instantly allow profiles to be transferred from your account.”
• How have people reacted? Not well. Here’s just a small number of social media reactions about the new Netflix profile transfer feature: