WTF people? You have a first party contract with Plex, they are well within their right to monitor the usage of the service they provide. They are not collecting stats about what you watch or anything, but they are getting billed based on usage of the Plex Cloud product. If you are not using it, they should turn it off. Seriously, get a grip and take a breath. It will be ok.
I also received this email. I love Plex, and they’ve been really good in the past, so I’d like to give them the benefit of the doubt. But this still raises issues about what they’re tracking, as well as why this is even being sent when my Plex server sees plenty of usage by family.
- not cloud.
- wtf
- seriously wtf
Whether or not you are using Plex Cloud or just signed into Plex on your server, you are communicating directly with them. They are free to monitor their side of the connection and can communicate that with you. Again, it is a first party relationship. They disclose that they can do this in the Ts&Cs.
if you look at all the posts you will see that even if (good taste aside) they are permitted to do so, it is not even remotely close to being an accurate communication.
this email is a stupid marketing ploy, by someone who doesn’t understand the data they have collected written in such a way that completely discounts the absolutely valid privacy concerns of their paying customers.
just because you can, doesnt mean you should.
@drinehart said:
WTF people? You have a first party contract with Plex, they are well within their right to monitor the usage of the service they provide. They are not collecting stats about what you watch or anything, but they are getting billed based on usage of the Plex Cloud product. If you are not using it, they should turn it off. Seriously, get a grip and take a breath. It will be ok.
Except that I do not use Plex Cloud
I’m also unsure why this is being shown as ‘answered’, as it clearly is not.
@moodecow said:
if you look at all the posts you will see that even if (good taste aside) they are permitted to do so, it is not even remotely close to being an accurate communication.
this email is a stupid marketing ploy, by someone who doesn’t understand the data they have collected written in such a way that completely discounts the absolutely valid privacy concerns of their paying customers.just because you can, doesnt mean you should.
So, perhaps it was just a glitch in the email then and they did not mean to send it to everyone. That is an even bigger WTF about getting pitchforks out. Again, relax, there is no privacy violation. If Emby or some ad server contacted you, then you have a valid concern. Otherwise, this is a non-issue (or perhaps someone fscked up and missent emails).
@friedflix said:
I’m also unsure why this is being shown as ‘answered’, as it clearly is not.
Green “Answered” = Actually answered (Has a response that has been accepted)
Gray “Answered” = Has responses that might be answers but have not been accepted.
But as for the actual subject matter: If you don’t like it then ignore it. If you REALLY don’t like it then stop using Plex and block all Plex emails.
It is only entertainment and not truly important in the great scheme of the universe.
@drinehart said:
So, perhaps it was just a glitch in the email then and they did not mean to send it to everyone. That is an even bigger WTF about getting pitchforks out. Again, relax, there is no privacy violation. If Emby or some ad server contacted you, then you have a valid concern. Otherwise, this is a non-issue (or perhaps someone fscked up and missent emails).
i think the general consensus is that the users want an answer as to what happened and how/why. i dont think there are any pitchforks out. however to dismiss this without seeing an adequate response is as bad a reaction as the pitchforking you refer to.
@Elijah_Baley said:
But as for the actual subject matter: If you don’t like it then ignore it. If you REALLY don’t like it then stop using Plex and block all Plex emails.
totally - dont question anything 
@moodecow - have you even read the thread(s)? Yeah, I think pitchforks describes it pretty well. I agree, though, a statement from Plex is really needed to quell the riot.
@drinehart - yeah i have, and to me it seems like people are more “whats the deal” and less “screw this and screw the devs this sucks” <-- and that scenario is what i consider more pitchforky
I’m not worried about play usage information getting tracked.
I just found it odd it said it wasn’t used. We stream from a computer in house to our apple tv in the same house every single day. Apparently that doesn’t count.
Weird email.
I agree that it is probably just a clumsy promotional move. It sure has stirred up the hornets tho
Would like to see what Plex has to say about this as well. Found the email really odd when I first received it, then wondered why they are monitoring how much you use it in the first place.
There is an identical thread in the General Discussions (Plex Pass) Category. Here is what I think happened…
From this thread (and obviously the other), everybody that received this email used or attempted to use Plex Cloud. When it was by invitation only, I tried it out, then Amazon was dropped as a provider. I no longer had any use for it. I removed Plex Cloud and did not use again. This is why I “haven’t been playing a lot of media lately.” Obviously they should have checked that I don’t have Plex Cloud setup.
I was the creator of the original post over in the other thread. There is some confusion between my original concern (which said that it felt creepy to receive this email) vs thinking that this wasn’t already happening (Plex tracking what I do). Their ToS clearly state that they can track what we do (albeit vague). I just thought it was creepy for them to email me, asking me “Where’d you go?”
Hey everyone. No doubt the email you all received earlier today raised some hairs as well as eyebrows. We’re deeply sorry about that and we’ll be sending out an email shortly, but here’s the main text:
Earlier today we sent an email to a small percentage of Plex users who (we thought) hadn’t used Plex in a while, urging them to give it another shot. Seemed harmless enough, except it turns out we messed it up and ended up including a completely random mix of users (among them, some of our most active and beloved users).
To make matters worse, the wording in the email seemed to imply that it was being sent based on what folks are watching in Plex, which was most definitely not the case. We do not know or track what is in anyone’s library, and we do not know or track what people are playing. In order to make Plex work, we do keep track of things like user login times and when Plex devices were last seen. And we do occasionally use this data to send targeted emails (e.g. to let specific people know about issues impacting certain devices or operating systems).
If you were accidentally targeted (and took offense to us calling your beautiful media collection “dusty”) we sincerely apologize for the screw up. If you actually haven’t used Plex in a while, we still urge you to give it another shot! We promise we’ll be more careful with the knobs and levers on the email machine!
@progravix said:
From this thread (and obviously the other), everybody that received this email used or attempted to use Plex Cloud. When it was by invitation only, I tried it out, then Amazon was dropped as a provider. I no longer had any use for it. I removed Plex Cloud and did not use again. This is why I “haven’t been playing a lot of media lately.” Obviously they should have checked that I don’t have Plex Cloud setup.
I never signed up for Plex Cloud…i got an invite, but i never set it up.
@kinoCharlino said:
Hey everyone. No doubt the email you all received earlier today raised some hairs as well as eyebrows. We’re deeply sorry about that and we’ll be sending out an email shortly, but here’s the main text:Earlier today we sent an email to a small percentage of Plex users who (we thought) hadn’t used Plex in a while, urging them to give it another shot. Seemed harmless enough, except it turns out we messed it up and ended up including a completely random mix of users (among them, some of our most active and beloved users).
To make matters worse, the wording in the email seemed to imply that it was being sent based on what folks are watching in Plex, which was most definitely not the case. We do not know or track what is in anyone’s library, and we do not know or track what people are playing. In order to make Plex work, we do keep track of things like user login times and when Plex devices were last seen. And we do occasionally use this data to send targeted emails (e.g. to let specific people know about issues impacting certain devices or operating systems).
If you were accidentally targeted (and took offense to us calling your beautiful media collection “dusty”) we sincerely apologize for the screw up. If you actually haven’t used Plex in a while, we still urge you to give it another shot! We promise we’ll be more careful with the knobs and levers on the email machine!
Thank you for the explanation.
@friedflix said:
I never signed up for Plex Cloud…i got an invite, but i never set it up.
There goes that theory. But the official answer is it was sent to a “completely random mix of users”.
