New Privacy Policy - you can no longer opt out of data collection

General Discussions
161

This new Privacy update sucks! Simply because it sows the seeds of mistrust. The only possible reason to my mind is to sell the availability of ad space to interested parties. Welcome to having your loyalty sold out by “The Pointy-haired Boss Peoples”

At the end of the day our TVs and devices are computers. They collect all kinds of info, and personally identifiable cookies and tracking beacons to track our butts across the internet. And I don’t think Plex is being transparent about what information is and can be collected from our devices by 3rd party apps and what sand boxing exists to protect our devices. Recently tracking like Demdex is bordering and legalised malware were the tracking code is placing itself in privileged positions in our browsers with capabilities beyond the opted harvested data.

Personally I will DNSBL and RBL block Plex in the router as a “Untrusted” and propagating the list for anyone a who has a similar DNSBL capable router, give the choice back to the user. And you can bet your bottom dollar users will have there service blocked in future updates.

Plex OFF!

162

well it looks like everyone can agree that plex ecosystem needs an opt-out and i already know you will be keeping the opt-out for european costumers. since we are entitled to that by law. and if some users have complaint with plex that plex does not want to solve like a refund. in case the product stop working or has heavy alterations that effect you. you can file a complaint at the european consumer center of your european country. like

i see the future plex is heading to and it will be only downhill if we allow data collecting.
first of all data collecting is something the costumers ALLOW if the have a CHOICE not something that is FORCED by a company. especially not a company that asks you to fork up -150EURO- (not to mention that as a european costumer most of the functions that plex offer just don’t work)
if plex wanted to know what new features people wanted or what they use the most they should have send maybe a poll once a month. this would have at least created the illusion that plex lissen to their costumers. and keep them happy while collection some data which users gave away. personally i don’t fill in polls but some people like it.

future of plex below how i see it:
plex forces users to have online plex account to login to their offline server
plex collects data
plex makes a deal with publishers of 3rd party to get revenue for ad’s
plex shares viewing data
plex introduces live tv addon
plex introduces live tv subscription
plex cancels lifetime subscriptions saying some bs that it’s not longer feasible to support them
plex start showing ad’s when they press pause button for free users for local content
plex no longer plays local content starting its own streaming service

163

I would like to voice my disapproval of the new Plex privacy policy. Plex Pass members should be able to opt out of any and all data collection.

164

Another paying customer here now looking for an alternative. Without the opt-out option Plex is no longer a viable product for me and my family. This is the beginning of the end for Plex. I wish I could get a refund.

165

Bad news. I have send an email to Plex asking them to rethink this change, and otherwise part of my lifetime pass money back.

166

what opt out setting are you people talking the “Send anonymous usage data to Plex” in pms ?

167

Plex give people options, stand behind your loyal customers and reward them because without them where would plex be? collecting data on free app I can understand, that’s why I buy apps to get rid of ads and “big brother” monitor everything. People are getting more aware about apps collecting data and selling them, ok you say you will not sell it but what if someone hacks your system and steals your collected info? I don’t know how often lately I have canceled installation of app after reading what data they need access to. I don’t care how much I like it or whatnot it´s about me wanting to control what data about me is collected, we have become so numb for it to long and if I purchase something then I want to be able to have the option to give permission for data collection. Find a way to serve your customers and your company because without your customers then what? it might not be a problem for plex for some time but sooner or later another app will rise and focus on providing service that the customer wants, maybe you should look in to have “Private Plex” app for the new growing consumer that want privacy. Without options I am gone, it´s not me, it´s you.

168

@elan said:
Sorry, I’ve been over on Reddit trying to respond to a bunch of things, so I hadn’t seen this thread until now.

I just wanted to clarify a few things which I’ve seen misrepresented or completely misunderstood, either here or on other channels:

  • We have never been interested in what media you have in your library, or what library media you’re watching. This hasn’t changed, and will not change!
  • We’re not selling or sharing these statistics with anyone, so I don’t know why people are saying they’re the product, or we’re whoring their data. That’s simply not the case.
  • We’ve always had in our privacy policy the part about exceptions for third parties; for example, if you played a VEVO video, we had to let them know about that (in an anonymous way). Ditto for things like premium trailers (which again, are streaming from a commercial provider of that media).
  • We’re not going to put ads on your personal content. Any mention of advertising in the ToC is specially meant to cover third party commercial content. If you don’t want to watch that content, you certainly don’t have to.

Can you help me understand the specific aspects of the new policy you’re angry at, because I feel like a lot of the anger I’m reading is based on misunderstanding. (Not all of it, for sure, but definitely some of it.)

We can’t opt out of data collection. That’s all.

169

@elan said:

@hexluther said:
The comical part is. If this information “wasn’t sold” (wink wink nudge nudge), is Plex in the business of producing movies, TV shows, family movies, etc. anymore? Honest question. I mean, if I were to humor the idea of such information “helping” them (which by the way Plex, I still HAVE NOT removed my position of it being NONE of your business!), in what way?

You’ve said you’re a technical person, so I assume this example will make sense: knowing attributes about the media is super helpful in terms of understanding investments into specific features and platforms ~ for example, how people are playing SRT subs on a PS3/PS4? If a lot, then we’d do well to accelerate allowing SRT subs to direct play on that platform. It’s a semi-contrived example, but it’s the sort of thing which is very interesting to have an accurate picture of.

We won’t accept Plex removing the opt-out option… That is what everyone is upset about. How hard is that to understand and to discuss directly? Instead you dance around the situation and talk about how the data is harmless.

170

@elan said:

… I’m happy to refund you your lifetime membership if you’d like. I’m truly sorry that these changes have upset you as much as they have.

If you are willing to issue refunds then that negates any complaint that lifetime pass members have.

Is this a special offer only for this specific user, or is it open to anyone?

171

@elan

Here’s why I’m annoyed, and I’m sure it’ll be the same reasons for a lot of people.

  1. Paid subscribers aren’t given the option to opt out of metrics gathering. The majority of your users are free users - surely - so you should not need the metrics from paid subscribers too. A lot of people are privacy sensitive, but understand that they have no right to complain if they’re not paying anything. But we are paying, so we want that option.
  2. The metrics you are gathering are still hugely invasive. They tell you enough information to know what I’m watching if suitably motivated. They tell you when I go to bed, what times of day I watch things. They tell you if I prefer films to TV shows. If I prefer 30 minute shows to 60 minute shows. I personally don’t care about a lot of this kind of suff, but this is valuable information for you to have. You may not be selling it now, but there’s a lot of money to had from data like this. Even if anonymised.
  3. With the data you’re collecting, a motivated company could make very real assumptions about what is in each person’s library. You might not maintain a database of release names/durations/bitrates etc., but those databases exist. All it will take is for them to subpeona your data and a lot of people might have a lot of questions to answer.

Those are my concerns. All are easily alleviated.

  1. Give paid subscribers the ability to opt out. Make it far more granular, though. List each piece of information you collect and let me pick which ones you get. I’d give you some, for sure. But not other bits. I’d opt out of time of day, for example. But I’d not opt out of media info, if it was suitably fuzzed. (See below.) You’ll get MORE data from people than you did before this privacy change. I currently opt out of everything, but if I can opt in to things I have no concern about, like subtitle usage or player type, I would. I’ll opt into anything that doesn’t allow you to determine what I watched, or exactly when I watched it. (If you’re so confident the data you collect cannot be used to determine a file name, release some (fair) examples and see if the community can work it out.)
  2. Fuzz this data a bit. Round the running time (I see you’ve suggested that elsewhere). Round it to 1 minute for <30 minutes, 5 minutes for >30 minutes. Bam, biggest concern - gone.
  3. Either give users the ability to opt out of their data ever being sold (you might not sell it now, but who knows what you’ll do in a year) or give the ability to opt out of it being collected in the first place.

Bottom line is you have not yet given an even vaguely compelling reason why the opt out is being removed. Sure you want the data, but you also want our money. Pick one? I know I’ll not be renewing my pass while 1 and 2 remain unresolved. Honestly, if you collect data I’m happy with you collecting I don’t care if you sell it. But right now the data you say you’re collecting (and “such as” gives you enormous wiggle room) is data I don’t even want you to have, let alone anyone else.

TLDR: Let me opt out, and/or fuzz the data way more.

This didn’t need to be this badly handled. Crazy that is has been.

172

I’ve noticed something about this and the other thread in the regular “General” section, that is the vast majority of posters and most of the ones that are most offended by the new policy are posters withe fewer than 50 posts. In fact it seems that most have fewer than 10 and many are first time posters.

That does not meant that those posters points/views have any less value that those of us the have been more active, if fact it could mean the opposite.

It could be that the issue has driven many people that have not been active on these boards to become active and THAT should worry Plex a LOT because it means that the issue is seen by many many previously satisfied Plex users as a very bad invasive move by Plex and many of those first time posters are being driven away by this move.

If for no other reason Plex than that Plex should reconsider the move, particularly the no opt out part, and roll back this new policy. I do not think that Plex would want to negatively polarize such an apparently large number of clearly quite satisfied users as this change of policy has effected.

As I have said before I do not really think the policy change has impacted me much BUT it is clearly at least perceived by many many previously satisfied customers as much more negative than positive.

It looks like Plex will loose more by this action than they ever could gain but we do not know how much revenue they have been promised for the data. It could be a LOT and that could offset or more than offset what they are loosing. At least it may appear so at first blush.

I think that is wrong as not only are they loosing some customers they are also loosing the customers that those lost customers could generate and they are loosing customers that see the “No opt out” clause and move on before even trying Plex.

I really, Really, REALLY hope Plex backs off this illconcieved policy change becaus even I will have to make sure I disclose the new policy to any prospective Plex users I talk to about their media system.

The users I might or might not bring to Plex are minuscule but there are a LOT of “me” and even loosing some of our recommendations will be significant, at least so I believe.

I still do not think I will move on because of this BUT I can no longer as strongly recommend Plex because there is a doubt in my mind about where this policy will lead. But there is NO doubt for me that this will hurt Plex in both the short and long term.

173

Contacted Plex via email to request a refund of my Lifetime Plex Pass. Have Emby scanning my media already and will migrate those who connect to my server over soon enough. This isn’t an acceptable change.

To clarify even if you revert the change I’m gone. That you want to do this indicates where you’re heading as a company. Revert it now you’ll do something similar later down the line. This service is as good as dead.

174

I’ve had the box for sharing my statistics checked since it was added, but I am unhappy that the decision is no longer up to me.

Can you give some insight into what percentage of the userbase opted in voluntarily like me?

I’m also disappointed that feature requests like properly supporting multiple cuts of movies have been around for 5+ years but continue to not get implemented.

175

@Elijah_Baley said:
It could be that the issue has driven many people that have not been active on these boards to become active and THAT should worry Plex a LOT because it means that the issue is seen by many many previously satisfied Plex users as a very bad invasive move by Plex and many of those first time posters are being driven away by this move.

I’m definitely in this category. I only come here when there’s a problem. This is a problem. Not one big enough for me to stop using Plex, but one big enough that I’ll not be paying for it. If they’re getting metrics from me, that’s payment enough. I only bought my Plex Pass to support Plex, and it looks like I’ll be doing that anyway, without the option to choose the method of support I provide.

176

This is a big no go, and if it really happens time to find a new media solution. Sad :frowning:

177

Just installed Emby on my QNAP NAS, it works perfectly, it has support for Apple TV, works with Alexa, no reason why I should stay with Plex. I hope they change their mind, until then, I’m out
/mike

178

@fetitzakukibrituri did you ever use offline sync?

179

Hi there:)

Long time no post.:wink:

This new “no-opt-out” policy is not cool.

Don’t be a fool… Stay in cool.

180

@teshiburu said:
@fetitzakukibrituri did you ever use offline sync?

No, I did not, I use my Plex Server mostly at home together with an Apple TV and a home theater projector, so I had no reason for that.