Love Netflix? Love private browsers? Sadly, you are out of luck using both together because Netflix is now blocking private browsers or, as Chrome calls it, “incognito browsing.” You can still login and do everything you want until you try to stream a movie and at that point Netflix will block your access to the site. (Please note we have no idea when this started—it may have been for some time now.)
We tested this on fully updated versions of Google Chrome and FireFox with the same results: in the end we are unable to use Netflix if we are using their private browsing option.
There are several possible reasons for this. Private browsers do not accept cookies, which Netflix may want to use to track usage and help their service work. Many sites use cookies to track important usage data to offer new video recommendations.
It is also possible that private browsing somehow interferes with the software they use to detect proxies. We are not sure how that would work, but many have suggested that Netflix is scanning cookies to find people using proxies.
For most users this will not be an issue, but it is a curious move for Netflix to block private browsers. So if you had wanted to skip ahead and watch the end of House of Cards without your spouse finding out from your browser history you are sadly out of luck.
Do you have an idea why Netflix may have blocked private browsers? Leave us a comment and help us get to the bottom of it.
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