Question about Privacy

General Discussions
1

What can the Plex team tell me about privacy and using Plex? I don’t like that over the last two years things have been updated so that Plex reports back details about our devices and our videos / libraries.

I know that there is a breakdown of information sent here:
https://www.plex.tv/about/privacy-legal/privacy-preferences/

But, I am wondering what exactly is sent, and how this data is used, as described from a Plex representative? I don’t enjoy the thought of a big brother knowing when, how often, where, and what I am watching, even if there may not be a physical name of the person or name of the movie being transmitted. This is a home streaming solution, and I don’t agree that information MUST be sent to Plex to better our experiences. The opt-out feature on the above page does not opt out all data collection.

If you can give me a good reason why this data NEEDS to be collected, and I mean a very, very good reason other than, “we like to know what people are doing on their devices so we can develop better products”, I would like to hear it.

And, sure, I can disable authentication and user accounts and have Plex completely offline, but then I lose my Plex Pass Lifetime subscription perks. I would think someone who is or has payed Plex would be better able to not transmit data outside of their network instead of someone who hasn’t but is using their software for free. (Though, personally, I think everyone should have full control over what is sent).

2

Plex does collect playback information for our own metrics to answer these question. Except who and what. Users and filenames are anonymized. This is used only for Plex statistical purposes to identify which Plex clients are being used and how much. This helps focus development. i.e. 0.01% of the Plex for iOS app is on devices running iOS xxx, so Plex can decide if they want o keep supporting iOS xxx.

3

Thanks @anon18523487, I appreciate that info. With just about all companies today on the data gathering bandwagon, enjoying the internet without companies attempting to use or sell your data is almost inevitable now. Did you know Windows 10 even phones home when you use calculator? I mean, come on seriously. At least your description makes sense as to why Plex collects data (although I can’t say I won’t try and stop the reporting anyway from my network).

4

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