My server isn’t being creeped on. Not sure why you think it would be…
The person I quoted said that as a result of Discover Together they’ve had to tell all their friends and family to change settings so they can’t see what they’re watching. They also said they’re switching to Emby and would be walking their family through switching. This very much gives the impression they are a server admin and have friends and family sharing their server. Do you disagree?
If it is the case that they run a server and share it with friends and family then they’ve been collecting information about what those users have been watching on that server since it’s been running. Do you think that doesn’t happen?
So what exactly have I twisted around?
Plenty of posters on this forum have made it clear (not just in this thread but over plenty of others) that they consider the vast majority of Plex users are people sharing someone else’s server. They also consider that most of those users have no interest in anything like Discover or watchlists. If that is true (and tbh it probably is true), then the vast majority of users will have one Plex ‘friend’ and that will be the person who’s server they share. That means that even if they have sync watch status turned on the only items which will trigger a change (and therefore report data to Plex) will be items from that server. That further means that any email sent by Plex to their ‘Friend’ will only contain information about items they’ve watched from that server, which is information already accessible to the server owner.
Does that mean that Plex’s approach to this has been perfect (or even acceptable)? No. Does it mean that people shouldn’t complain about the real valid concerns (including that server admins now potentially have information about what they’re watching on their server being shared the other way)? Also no. But it doesn’t necessitate any of the ridiculous hyperbole (and in some cases outright misinformation) that people keep seeming to think should be posted.
Every Plex user I know uses other Plex servers besides mine. Many of my Plex users also run their own server sharing family videos and pictures (and presumably other media) to a wider audience.
The whole point for Plex doing this Discover project is to widen the network and reach and monetise it. As with FB, Twitter and other social networks, I dislike every aspect of this reach.
Every social network operates the same way.
I’ve started working with my family and friends to remove watchlists, unpin Discover and uncheck streaming services, uncheck Plex TV and Movies, change search settings to remove More Ways To Watch and change all privacy settings they can to limit exposure to other users and indeed Plex. I’m aware that by the very nature of how Plex works, external exposure can never adequately be eliminated.
Edit - oh and the way they have done it is really distasteful and as I mentioned earlier, in the EU at least, most likely illegal.
Do you want that feature? Did you sign up for the beta? Did you think it would be super awesome to have your watch data shoved in the faces of friends and family. If so, I stand corrected. One person wants it.
Your comparison that “admins already have this data” is a giant stretch. I’m embarrassed I have to explain it to you, but I will: I’m not emailing my users saying “LOOK AT WHAT JIM WATCHED!!! Look at what sally watched!!!” You know why? It’s creepy. None of my users want that crap shared. “You watched Seinfeld for the 13th time??? Come on, Bob, there’s better stuff!”
Whoever came up with this brain dead idea should be off the dev team. It’s garbage. Get rid of this stupid, idiotic, garbage feature. Rarely have I ever felt more that I’M the product being sold.
And if it was a condition of operating a FREE Plex server that this info would be shared, sure. But that’s not the case. I’ve got a Plex lifetime membership. I’ve paid for the product. I think it’s reasonable to expect that if I’ve paid for the product that I don’t become the product that’s sold / monetized.
No. But people participating in the thread about the beta did. There’s also people in this thread who say they use it and like it. So, there are people who do want it.
Neither’s Plex. It’s not telling your ‘users’ what other ‘users’ on your server are watching. They would need to have all decided to become Plex ‘friends’ with each other for that to happen. As well as having sync watch status turned on (which is off by default for everyone’) and/or be adding things to watchlists and then marking them watched. And have the sharing privacy settings set to ‘friends’.
No, not even then. The Opt In/Opt Our process they used, as I have mentioned earlier, would be classified as illegal in the EU.
Plex automatically added my family and friends as “Friends” in my “Profile” (newly created). I then had to manually change that. At least it did highlight for me and my users what was on their watchlist etc and that could be removed. Some really obscure and old material.
I have no doubt some social media zealots like the feature (s). I am not one of them and so far, neither are any of family and friends.
Does this part of a user’s profile also get emailed to friends each week?
Because it doesn’t take much mental math to convert those counters into approximate hours, and I don’t see how my life would be improved by my friends, family, or colleague getting a weekly email alleging in effect how many hours of TV I watched that week, especially if that number is really the total of multiple people who didn’t bother switching profiles, includes background playlists no one is actively watching, or the black screen sound ambiance videos they like to fall asleep too, etc.
It’d be an odd thing to include in a ‘Week In Review’ email, especially as it’s a consecutive total since joining Plex rather than a figure of weekly viewing.
I certainly agree it’d be odd, but then again I find the whole thing odd. I know the on-demand user profile is a total, but you might also assume that the week-in-review version would be that week’s “total”.
Wondering what might or might not be in these emails is one of the aspects that make it all so creepy. I still have yet to see one. I’ve definitely never seen anything that looks like an iron-clad promise of what will ever be in one. But I have no idea and no way of knowing what people may have been emailed about me. Super creepy feeling.
Quick google search has found Imgur: The magic of the Internet as an example. The reddit post that links to it is not happy about the email so I can only assume that if there’d been anything worse on the email they would’ve included it in their screenshot.
I suspect the email will just include some examples of what users who are sharing their watch activity with you have been watching that week, probably with some weighting given to shows/movies that have been watched by multiple people. I can’t find anything which suggests it’s giving a detailed breakdown for each user.
Create a test account using a free e-mail service, then share some libraries with it, and use it to watch some media.
Outside of the weekly review e-mails, a test account can be helpful. I share my server with a few friends. Using the test account gives me a better idea of what they experience when streaming from my server, setting up a new device, etc.
Please remove this “feature.”
People that aren’t tech savvy won’t realize that the content they watch is being emailed to others. Plex is not a social media. No one wants this feature. Please reverse direction.
So, I just had some private viewing history shared with my friends against my knowledge. This was something I ABSOLUTE:LY did not agree to knowingly.
I’m a long time Lifetime Plex Pass owner, and when I found out that this was something that I now had to go and actively change in order ti protect my privacy absolutely ASTOUNDED me.
Shame on Plex for making this a “feature”. Who in their right minds actually WANT to share their viewing history to their friends via an email spam from a third party company?
Has there been any explanation from Plex as to why this idiotic decision was made?
Basically: this edict is coming from CEO Keith directly after the last round of investment. This is his personal milestone: turning plex into a social network. I don’t believe that the FTEs from plex,inc in the forums have anything else to say (especially after the last reorg) other than pointing to the factually incorrect unsigned post from plex,inc.
Reading the room from the lack of truth, lack of engagement, lack of mitigation plans from plex,inc FTEs: Plex,inc hopes that this problem will go away. There is no other explanation that makes sense.
OK, but what was wrong with an explicit “recommend this show to my friends” button that I could push when I felt it would be appreciated, or “recommend to [specific friend]” which would carry more weight when the friend knew I had them specifically in mind, or maybe even – for users who have a lot of friends – “this show is trending in your friend group” (without ever identifying which friends in specific.)
So many good ways to make progress in this area that do not involve violating specific user watch activity and trust, yet Plex chose the worst possible approach, and then the worst possible follow-up (silence) in response to the complaints.
They haven’t been silent at all, you just don’t like the answer (which is totally fine). They have had numerous responses and numerous employees posting in the comments of the forum. They even replied to some news articles as well if I remember correctly (unless those replies were just the article quoting the forum responses).
Thats all true - but people feel their trust has been broken. For me - its the refusal to add controls for server owners to stop data being shared between friends that are hooked into your server. Its a baffling decision and people are pissed.
