After reading this, I reconsidered my original assumption that Plex was sharing my watch history, but I’m now back to finding out how it has been shared.
I’m now wondering how dependent the Plex app is on RokuOS for sending my client related telemetry to Plex. For example, does the Plex app create https sessions directly within the app or does it rely on RokuOS API’s?
I’m also curious if how much RokuOS can peer into the workings of an app where things are not encrypted.
Plex might not share a file like an SMB share where the filename would be plain to see, but the media is still associated with the metadata that’s displayed in the UI.
Can Plex even share this information without running foul of any licenses or NDA’s?
It’s one thing to say Plex won’t share this information, but if the platform the apps are running on can its all for not.
If you suspect a whole platform to be untrustworthy, then you should not assume any of the apps running on that platform to be safe. That’s common sense, I’d say.
Nowadays with so many Internet-connected devices around, you’d have to avoid pretty much all of them.
Internet-connected Smart TVs have been found to report back to their manufacturers what is getting played. Not only which station has been tuned into, but also info about media played via various apps running on them. Some are suspected of snooping on content played over their HDMI inputs. Some are even reported to use their cameras to detect the presence of viewers in front of them, particularly during ad breaks.
Smart phones are suspected to have been turned into bugs by various “free apps”, with their microphones being active all the time and listening for keywords in conversations in their vicinity.
Digital home assistants, which usually bear female first names, have long been suspected to do the same.
Any input you make into your computer, any web search you do, anything like that can potentially be copied and sent to (often) multiple parties. Either because of the presence of malicious apps, or because the platform owner has built their business model around that. There is pretty much no exception to this on any Internet connected device in this day and age.
The only difference between platforms is how detailed these data are and if there are any measures in place to anonymify them (at least a little bit).
You’re right, it’s pretty clear that data collection is a huge issue across the board these days. Smart TVs, phones, digital assistants it seems like almost everything is reporting back to someone, listening in, or tracking what we do. And it’s not just malicious apps; sometimes it’s built right into the way these companies do business.
But here’s the thing: just because everyone else is doing it doesn’t make it okay, especially for Plex. We’re talking about our personal media, and we expect a certain level of trust and control. When Plex starts changing things, adding pop-ups, or hiking prices while the product feels like it’s getting worse, it’s totally fair for us to call them out on it.
Understanding that data collection is widespread doesn’t stop us from being concerned about what Plex specifically is doing. Our focus is on the platform we choose to use, and we deserve to know what’s happening with our data and why the service feels like it’s going in a different direction.
Yes, I don’t allow any of our non Roku tv’s connect to the internet and the new Roku remotes allow you to disable the mic altogether so the smart feature doesn’t work.
I also understand that some data is going to get out, the Roku channel, YouTube, Netflix… that we just have to deal with. But it still begs the question, how “hooked” is RokuOS into the Plex app? Because this is one area where we could be one or two tyrannical governments away from that kind of data being used against us.
Not only that, but many people host personal media on these devices, enter meta data, etc. What personal information is being leaked by playing that media on these devices.
I also have an Nvidia shield, but I have the same question for that device.
MAN, now I am convinced it was leaked through plex. Just checked the opt-in page and it there were additional optins and now vendors that didn’t even exist just last week. AND I WAS OPTED IN TO ALL OF THEM. WTF
To be fair it is pretty much a safe bet to assume all apps- especially anything you did not pay for-- is 100% selling your data because that’s how those companies make money.
I take Plex at face value that they say they do not sell our data but that would be the exception to the rule- and quite strange, since they have all our data and it’s clearly valuable if you know exactly what people are watching.
I can also confirm that I was opted-into my data being sold by default.
