True!
Unfortunately I live somewhere where it is legal, I guess?, and while I saw they do offer some marketing or data collection opt - outs for certain of the United States, my state is not one of them. Nothing says “we’re committed to your privacy” like doing the absolute bare minimum per jurisdiction (rather than applying the same or a higher standard across the board). And then there’s a blatant violation like this, across the board.
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I’ve been on Plex for a long long time. I paid for lifetime Plex Pass.
Oh, how I regret it.
I was alerted to this by other people on my box, asking how to disable this. If this isn’t sorted out, then I’ll be taking my media to Jellyfin, and recommending against Plex to others.
The way this has been implemented and automatically opted in, as well as the way that user’s activity has been shared without permission, is disgusting. It’s not even a server settings for God’s sake.
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This new set of features is creepy and invasive. I went through and disabled as much as I could, but the process was so terrible I started looking for alternatives to Plex. Plexpass user who never thought he would utter those words. I have been 100% satisfied with Plex up until this set of features rolled out. Now I don’t trust having your software in my home.
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For anyone still getting these, forward them to abuse@messagebird.com, compliance@sparkpost.com and abuse@sparkpost.com - plex’s email provider and explain the situation. They absolutely need to be accountable for unsolicited spam and exposure of private data. If you are also in the EU make sure you make it clear this violates your GDPR defined privacy rights.
Oh and check your email preferences, they mass resubscribed me and it sounds like several others to all marketing emails, which is quite simply against the law.
It’s quite amazing how Plex can’t see that they’ve flat out broken the law across the EU and are now liable for potential fines in the region of €20 million+ it makes no difference if they are EU based or not, if you sell to EU citizens you are liable for the penalties for violating their rights.
Plex - roll it back now FFS.
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These “opt-in” practices has to stop. I got an email today for my friends viewing habits, that’s crazy. Here is a the website where are GDPR agency’s are listed per county’s.
https://edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/about-edpb/members_en
Please check for your country and make a report.
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AGREE.
Also note, it is not just European countries that have laws relating to Opt in and Opt out and indeed, email solicitation.
Specifically on emails, a person or company (in the country where I live) can only give the express consent required if the email
- [identifies you as the sender]
- [contains your contact details]
- [makes it easy to unsubscribe]
You can also not use or supply a list that has been created with address-harvesting software.
I have already mentioned the issue that violates law relating to the Opt in process used (Opt out to be more correct).
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so many people don’t know about this, and have no idea you are updating others with their watching activities. Kinda slimy behavior. Please reconsider this whole notification by email what users are watching. I’ve not met a user who knew this was happening. I learned via reddit. im sure we (some users) missed some very exciting news about some sleazy new feature, but I guess we probably all assumed a bit too much trust with plex. For the holidays, how about you revert this, and relaunch another time, after more people can be warned. And if a feature requires warnings, maybe that’s a sign that your users may have a different view of your organization than you do.
been using plex since roughly 2015. This is the first time i’ve been creeped out enough to come and post. Well done on the community engagement. Lots of people posting about this feature, it’s all the rage, even after a month or so.
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disable this plex setting RIGHT NOW
Disable These Plex Settings Now | Plex is Collecting Your Private Info & Sharing Your Watch Data
I think your PR department needs some restructuring
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I have to assume the lack of response at this point is because the lawyers told them not to…they’ve got a big mess to clean up in non-US countries.
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bump to keep the thread alive.
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No action will be taken by any Data Protection authority as the impact on the individuals is minimal on average, and there won’t be a court/civil case due to the level of harm to the individuals being minimal to none.
Have Plex caused the exposure of personal data about individuals, yes. But in data protection law and civil cases, this is such small fry that no-one will do anything.
Plex are truly in the wrong morally, but their track record shows that they don’t even respond to these kind of issues, never mind apologise.
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It makes me so sad that Plex can just “wait it out” and try and let the noise subside so that they can continue to make evil decisions regarding user privacy. Is this really what founders Elan Feingold, Cayce Ullman, and Scott Olechowski had in mind when they started this company? Selling out their users’ privacy and their own credibility for an extra dollar?
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I agree - this feature does not make sense for private media server software. This may be the beginning of the end for Plex.
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Eventually, Plex is going to have to start maing more money than they do now. How? Through streaming advertising supported content. They can’t do it with Plex Pass subscriptions because everyone could just buy a lifetime pass and Plex would make a killing for a month then die due to lack of cash flow and cash flow is what keeps a company alive.
What Plex is trying to do is make watching videos and movies just like listening to music on Spotify. Make it a communal, shared experience. This is just like “Friend Activity” on Spotify which a feature that lets you see what your friends are listening to on the music streaming service. You can view your friends’ playlists, recently played artists, and current songs on the desktop app, or just their playlists and artists on the mobile app. It drives engagement. Hey, Alex is listening to X, I think I’ll check it out. You do have to opt in on Spotify and since I never did on Plex, this hasn’t been an issue for me.
Plex just looks like they want to get more social connectivity into a video streaming app in much the same way Spotify did it for a music streaming app.
They can want to do that, and actually do that, all they want.
It just needs to be opt-in.
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While it’s disappointing that they won’t even bother on addressing the complaints on how they made this to be an “opt out” instead of “opt in” feature (considering there’s options buried in sub-menus within sub-menus, it’s an “opt out”), longterm it can’t have helped their reputation or even word-of-mouth recommendations.
I know at least for me, I can’t see myself recommending others to buy a Plex Pass due to how this was all handled. I’d more than likely tell someone even thinking of doing so about the horrible manner in how features like this are implemented and how criticism is typically received.
It really does suck that’s it’s gone this way with Plex. They used to be better about this.
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As noted on the page, everyone’s privacy settings are PRIVATE at the time this page is viewed.
I called complete BS…I would NEVER NEVER have ever enabled sharing as an IT professional…EVER.
However, all my settings were changed to Friends…Again, who in their right freaking mind would share what they are watching when its stored on a private server. Arguably 50% of what is stored on private servers is stuff you’d never admit to having heard of let alone watching…and then to want to want them to know what you are watching.
Give me a break, this was an idiot move by some marketing assclown to try and get people to share what they were watching of the PLEX PROVIDED MEDIA so they could get more people to watch their stuff so they could get more revenue. Technically it was a disaster implementation and blew up in our faces because it applied to all media servers.
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Yes, you did! I just looked through the Discover Together Beta thread and found your post. They obviously didn’t take you very seriously. That just makes this foul-up that much more disappointing. I was a big supporter of Plex, so this final straw really made me angry. But now I’m done being angry – I’m just apathetic toward Plex.
On the bright side, this did motivate me to give Emby another shot, and I’ve found that, for the features I use, they have pretty much surpassed Plex. At the moment, it looks as though Emby will by my media server for the foreseeable future.
They even respond to every one of my forum posts, and have implemented a couple things I suggested within a few days. It’s like night and day.
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I feel you. I went from iOS and Apple ecosystem for Plex to Android and now Android has its fair share of issues. I have emby set up for my personal use, problem is my family is so engrossed now in Plex switching would be a huge inconvenience for them.
This is the most stupid ■■■■ ive ever seen. This is UNACCATABLE… ■■■■ off plex.
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