@brunomc said:
What is also interesting is that i see someone mention opt-out,
well study that opt-out page and from what i gather you only opt-out of server settings and playback data NOT all the other data.
It would be nice this gets really clarified.
What can we actually opt-out of and what cant we ?
What is still always being sent to plex ?
We were promised a page that displays everything what is being send (the famous privacy tab).
All i gather right now is that it has become very obscure this entire privacy debacle and that is not a good thing.
There you go. Under optional playback data is the stuff you can opt out of. Most of the data collection cannot be turned off.
I like how they are hiding the checkbox on an info page…
Edit: “If you opt-out of sending us playback data, we will also stop sending the data described in the Server / Library section above.”
so forgive me, but after going over that page, it seems like there is not that much information being collected. nothing that could identify your media that is (i dont see how it could from that list, maybe I am wrong). Does this mean that if you uncheck that box then all is “ok”. I understand plex is still collecting usage statistics to some point even if so (I think I have this right), and although I don’t LOVE any of my data being collected when I watch my own personal media on my own personal server it SEEMS like it really is not anything “really bad”… or did I totally take the wrong thing away from that?
Container mkv
Video Codec h264
Audio Codec aac
Bit Rate 1000
Duration 1800
Resolution 1920×1080
With those known objects it is quite easy to identify a media, to a high degree of certainty, so they can identify content if looking for piracy is what they want.
This is basic principles if big data analyses check out this paper to learn more
@brunomc said:
What is also interesting is that i see someone mention opt-out,
well study that opt-out page and from what i gather you only opt-out of server settings and playback data NOT all the other data.
It would be nice this gets really clarified.
What can we actually opt-out of and what cant we ?
What is still always being sent to plex ?
We were promised a page that displays everything what is being send (the famous privacy tab).
All i gather right now is that it has become very obscure this entire privacy debacle and that is not a good thing.
There you go. Under optional playback data is the stuff you can opt out of. Most of the data collection cannot be turned off.
I like how they are hiding the checkbox on an info page…
Edit: “If you opt-out of sending us playback data, we will also stop sending the data described in the Server / Library section above.”
so forgive me, but after going over that page, it seems like there is not that much information being collected. nothing that could identify your media that is (i dont see how it could from that list, maybe I am wrong). Does this mean that if you uncheck that box then all is “ok”. I understand plex is still collecting usage statistics to some point even if so (I think I have this right), and although I don’t LOVE any of my data being collected when I watch my own personal media on my own personal server it SEEMS like it really is not anything “really bad”… or did I totally take the wrong thing away from that?
Container mkv
Video Codec h264
Audio Codec aac
Bit Rate 1000
Duration 1800
Resolution 1920×1080
With those known objects it is quite easy to identify a media, to a high degree of certainty, so they can identify content if looking for piracy is what they want.
This is basic principles if big data analyses check out this paper to learn more
And really, all they need is duration to tie it to a particular movie with some margin of error.
The rest can tie it to particular file with a smaller margin of error.
@brunomc said:
What is also interesting is that i see someone mention opt-out,
well study that opt-out page and from what i gather you only opt-out of server settings and playback data NOT all the other data.
It would be nice this gets really clarified.
What can we actually opt-out of and what cant we ?
What is still always being sent to plex ?
We were promised a page that displays everything what is being send (the famous privacy tab).
All i gather right now is that it has become very obscure this entire privacy debacle and that is not a good thing.
There you go. Under optional playback data is the stuff you can opt out of. Most of the data collection cannot be turned off.
I like how they are hiding the checkbox on an info page…
Edit: “If you opt-out of sending us playback data, we will also stop sending the data described in the Server / Library section above.”
so forgive me, but after going over that page, it seems like there is not that much information being collected. nothing that could identify your media that is (i dont see how it could from that list, maybe I am wrong). Does this mean that if you uncheck that box then all is “ok”. I understand plex is still collecting usage statistics to some point even if so (I think I have this right), and although I don’t LOVE any of my data being collected when I watch my own personal media on my own personal server it SEEMS like it really is not anything “really bad”… or did I totally take the wrong thing away from that?
Container mkv
Video Codec h264
Audio Codec aac
Bit Rate 1000
Duration 1800
Resolution 1920×1080
With those known objects it is quite easy to identify a media, to a high degree of certainty, so they can identify content if looking for piracy is what they want.
This is basic principles if big data analyses check out this paper to learn more
And really, all they need is duration to tie it to a particular movie with some margin of error.
The rest can tie it to particular file with a smaller margin of error.
Indeed, it can be done with a small margin of error with just 1-2 of them, the rest is just to get the last 1% of margin.
Heh…those stats describe a significant chunk of my movies. Impressive that they can magically boil that down to a particular movie. I also understood that Plex was fuzzing the duration…which would be one of the strongest fingerprints.
Most of this stuff is based on a set of assumptions. Movie X is the hottest thing being torrented this week. The various versions of movie X have these characteristics. Something matching these characteristics is statistically probable to be Movie X.
@mdnitoil said:
Heh…those stats describe a significant chunk of my movies. Impressive that they can magically boil that down to a particular movie. I also understood that Plex was fuzzing the duration…which would be one of the strongest fingerprints.
Exactly, duration is being “binned” and even if I don’t know the size of this bin, I think it’ll make very difficult to pin down single movies, let alone TV shows where many series have almost the same episode length.
If you look on IMDB you’ll get thousands of movies in a “10 minute bin” duration, like 4’000 movies between 180 and 190 minutes, you get almost 200 movies at 190 minutes (I suppose it’s a 1 minute bin).
At this point in time I’m going to have to conclude that Plex are deliberately setting up their Pirvacy Policy and data collection in a way to decieve users and collect data that people are trying to avoid collecting, and that there is, in effect, NO opt out if you have remote users. Shockingly shady behaviour. Deliberately, calculatedly deceptive and dishonest. Definitely not renewing my Plex Pass. Unless there someone at Plex who cares to correct these very reasonable assumptions, which it’s increasingly looking like there isn’t?
Huh…I concluded the exact opposite. My train of thought is as follows:
Assumption: Plex wants to remain a viable business entity
Assumption: Plex doesn’t want it to be provable in a court of law that they are facilitating the streaming of copyrighted material so the RIAA, etc. can sue them into oblivion
Conclusion: Plex is purposely not collecting any data that can be used to prove their accessory status in a court of law
In the end, I’m simply relying on Plex’s self interest, but I’m good with that.
@mdnitoil said:
Huh…I concluded the exact opposite. My train of thought is as follows:
[…]
Conclusion: Plex is purposely not collecting any data that can be used to prove their accessory status in a court of law
I read all the data that Plex is collecting and even if you don’t opt-out there’s basically no way one could link that generalized, binned data to some specific movie (like if you rip your own DVD) or some specific “release”. Whether you can opt-out or not is of course important, and on a theoreticl level I’d like to know what external users are transmitting to the mothership, but to my knowledge the harvested data is anyway not enough to track your content even if you don’t opt-out.
@zpaolo11x said:
I read all the data that Plex is collecting and even if you don’t opt-out there’s basically no way one could link that generalized, binned data to some specific movie (like if you rip your own DVD) or some specific “release”. Whether you can opt-out or not is of course important, and on a theoreticl level I’d like to know what external users are transmitting to the mothership, but to my knowledge the harvested data is anyway not enough to track your content even if you don’t opt-out.
I agree. Once they fuzzed the data, my concerns about the data being collected pretty much vanished. My issue here isn’t with the data being collected, it’s with the extremely misleading “opt out” option. Firstly, how thoroughly hidden away it is, and secondly how it isn’t really any kind of opt out. I would probably be willing to share data with Plex, but I want an actual option.
So hopeful to get past all this. My sole question at this point really:
If i uncheck that box on the privacy website, and a remote user has not turned off the “Usage Statistics” and “Crash Reports” will the specific Server/Library data still be sent? OR is it set so that when that privacy page on the site is unchecked, no “extra” Server/Library data is collected? Curious about the verbiage there.
If it is the first, will that need to be reset… every time a client app updates? etc??? This is why I hope that it the Server opting out applies to all action occurring on the server.
No tin hat here, just believe my data should be my data…
I don’t see why all this data gathering should apply to plexpass users. At the very least, give us a full, easy opt out which includes everyone who connects to our server. I bought lifetime plexpass recently and i’m so disappointed.
@TellementTurkey said:
I don’t see why all this data gathering should apply to plexpass users. At the very least, give us a full, easy opt out which includes everyone who connects to our server. I bought lifetime plexpass recently and i’m so disappointed.
They really, really don’t seem to care. They did enough to trick users into thinking they’re opting out, but didn’t actually
address the real concerns. What has annoyed/upset me about all this is that what they’ve done seems very deliberately misleading to their users. Either that, or the privacy policy is deeply misleading. They seem to have no interest in clarifying which, so we’re forced to assume the former.
Just run your plex boxes offline and problem solved, it’s hard to report on metrics if there are no metrics to be gathered. The GDPR legislation is a bit interesting given the hammer it provides ICO. The easier solution for Plex to avoid the whole GDPR is refactoring the code between now at May of next year so that the boxes are more standalone without cloud-dependency unless a user is actively making use of a service which requires certain data to be transmitted for functionality.
For those who are more privacy conscious, make the request to Plex for a copy of your data to investigate yourself and see how much of an issue it is for you.
@hthighway said:
The Plex Client obeys the opt-out rules of the server owner (Admin Account). If the server owner has opted out then any user streaming from that server automatically opts out while streaming from that server (local or remote).
@hthighway said:
I would love to provide you a link to the info but I have not yet found it in the policy.
This was info provided by the Plex Team when I asked the same question
Can you please provide a clarification and ask them to include on the privacy preference page ?
Also, where is the new privacy tab in the server settings that the CEO has written about https://www.plex.tv/about/privacy-policy-changes/. Sorry to repeat if this has already been mentioned somewhere.
I see this, and this makes sense for personal use. My ONLY question at this point is… do remote users statistics still get collected or does this cover EVERYTHING. So hopeful it covers everything. I love being able to share home videos with family and friends and would like to continue using plex to do so! As long as their usage cannot be linked/tied to my server or if none of their information is collected then I will be able to move on and stop checking these forums every few hours
What I find interesting is that I have opted out of data collection and disabled metadata refreshes on my server, yet for the last 3-5 days my server has been spinning up the drives and "processing metadata " is occurring. This is displaying as 50 pages of status reports. Have checked my server logs so I know the times it’s spinning them up. So, what the hell is going on there? It seems a bit coincidental that it only started when the new privacy policy took effect.
I’m not concerned about anyone knowing what I have on the server, because it’s not illegal to download files in my country, only to distribute, which I do not do as only my immediate family has access to the system.
Also I think this is very telling about where Plex stands;
Legal Basis for Processing. Plex processes Collected Information with your consent. Plex may also process Collected Information when it needs to do so to fulfill a contract, or when required by law.
