Brace yourselves, folks: looks like Netflix are getting tough on circumvention of geoblocking. Reports have surfaced on Reddit that the latest versions of the Netflix Android app have been hard-coded to use the Google Public DNS servers (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4). This effectively prevents users from specifying custom DNS servers that redirect certain traffic via VPN servers based in the desired country.
So far at least two VPN providers, Unblock-US and UnoTelly, have acknowledged the update to the Android app, advising their users in their forums.
It’s surprising that Netflix has taken this long to fight back against the myriad DNS-based services that allow users to bypass geoblocking restrictions. Despite good intentions, it’s still technically against Netflix’ terms and conditions to access their content in this manner. That said, it would be foolish to believe that Netflix would be able to ignore as many as 200,000 Australians bypassing their geoblock and accessing Netflix content for very long.
Fortunately, there’s good news: at this stage it appears that Netflix hasn’t done anything to prevent users from using DNS-based circumvention services to access Netflix on any other medium. It remains to be seen whether this modification to the Android app is the first step in a larger plan to shut out non-compliant users, but for now subscribers in Australia can rest assured that their streaming fix is still available. For now.
