this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2023
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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.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Left Plex for Emby (when they started adding their own content and marketing it to me) few years ago, never looked back. You are absolutely right, one email like this and I’m gone. Emby does what it’s supposed to do and just that, that’s all I care about. Jellyfin looks cool too..

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I remember getting downvoted to all hell somewhere when I suggested switching to Jellyfin because of Plex’s awful privacy policy and how they kept shoving the “free on Plex” crap on my home screen every time Plex updated. Switched to jellyfin about a year ago. Goodbye Plex, don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I know what the discussion on my favourite podcast is gonna be next week. This is kinda shenanigans. Ive had plex SO bloody long I dont remember ever getting this option to set it. Now I only have 1 friend, but still. Setting changed.

Edit: I commented on why im still using Plex the other day

My Jellfin server has crashed a few times for no ryhme or reason without having touched it for a couple of weeks (no patches, no watchtower for docker, just dead). Plex has been fine.
Plex has proper intro skipping.
I was able to set up parental controls on Plex very quickly without any headache.
The wife/kid factor. Plex was/is easier for them.
The amount of time I have invested into managing Plex over the past decade is still less than I have into managing Jellyfin in the past 3 years.
Lifetime plexpass was gifted to me.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Œuf I hope this isn’t occurring in Europe…

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

But not really, no

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year 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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year 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!

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