this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2023

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Plex crossed a line with "Your week in review" emails today. (alien.top)

submitted 2 years ago by Ironicbadger@alien.top to c/main@selfhosted.forum

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As you may have seen Plex decided it was OK today to send an email showing me what my friends have been watching. To be clear, this is Plex telling other people what I've been watching from my server, with my files, and this is not OK.

https://imgur.com/a/DYR4wlh

We all knew it was a matter of time before Plex started collecting data on our libraries and sharing it with advertisers. What happened to their "we don't know, and don't want to know, what is on your server"?. This, for me, is proof that those fears were absolutely founded in reality. On what planet would I ever want this information to be shared with friends on family on an OPT OUT basis?

It's totally unacceptable to collect this data in the first place. It's totally unacceptable to share this information with uniquely identifiable information. And it's totally unacceptable to do this without explicitly asking me if it's OK.

Unfortunately there is nothing you can do about this as a server admin, because technically these are Plex users and their marketing email preferences are controlled on the user side in the Plex website preferences. Not on your server.

This is an absolutely egregious overreach.

Thank goodness there are alternatives available in the form of Jellyfin and Emby. I left my Plex server up after the Jellyfin January challenge we did on the Self-Hosted podcast but because of this I feel that I have no choice but to take it down for good.

(page 4) 16 comments

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[–] Desert_Concoction@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

It’s not necessarily from your server, even if you just mark a movie/show as “Watched”, it’ll show up on your feed. No one will know if it’s from your server or not

[–] VexingRaven@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

This is why they forced everybody through a privacy settings prompt recently.

[–] WanderingSimpleFish@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

Œuf I hope this isn’t occurring in Europe…

[–] blentdragoons@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

this thread got me thinking. i was not happy about what plex did as many of you also did not like it. so today i installed jellyfin to test it out. i'm very impressed. the ui is simpler than plex, but i really like it. i found that it isn't exactly free though. to get guide data for live tv you must pay for the guide data, with the lifetime plex pass that was free. so this is a $35/year cost. not a huge issue, but true. the other thing i noticed is the media playback control is not as good as the plex control, but no media app has one as good as plex. need to think about this but i'll probably switch.

[–] alittler@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

But not really, no

[–] WhatTheFuckDoWeDoNow@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

Emby FTW.

[–] AlexChato9@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

The joy of Emby 👌 I literally chosed to go with this because of this reason and support the team with the Premiere membership. The client apps might be less refined, but they have come a long way!

[–] r4nchy@alien.top 0 points 2 years ago

I have never used Plex, never interested to self-host it, never read about its history, didn't understand its pricing, didn't understand its self-hosting vs paid thingy.

And I will keep it that way !!

But, One thing that I do understand is that there are Venture Capitalists who are running the show now. One thing for sure about VCs is that they don't care about products or services, they only care about financial returns.

Now they are just generating the buzz in the community. It's just that they are waiting for the right time to screw everyone. Because the VCs will want their investment's returns.

So, thank you to Plex for existing, but NO THANKS !!

Jellyfin all the way!

[–] PrestigiousDay9535@alien.top 0 points 2 years ago

Y’all have friends on Plex? That’s the dumbest thing I’ve read this whole week.

[–] parabola949@alien.top 0 points 2 years ago

I mean.... Plex didn't force you to friend anyone, and explained what being "friends" meant (being able to view their watching / rating / etc) so... Sorry you didn't bother to read?

[–] JAP42@alien.top 0 points 2 years ago

I've only seen on Plex items on these emails. Nothing from my server.

[–] Whatwhenwherehi@alien.top 0 points 2 years ago

Uses Plex over real open source like jellyfin and is surprised when his data is scraped. Get a clue then I'll care

[–] Rubenel@alien.top 0 points 2 years ago

I use Synology Video Station.

[–] ScollopedFeets@alien.top 0 points 2 years ago

Plex has always been for retards, people who are 7 years behind the tech-curve. You deserve this. They're just protecting themselves from the inevitable, the inevitable that you caused by misusing their software to do illegal things. Yes, I am a pirate myself so I know what this is really about. You're morons.

[–] OverjoyedBanana@alien.top 0 points 2 years ago

What is the point of self hosting proprietary shit ?

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