Plex now want to SELL your personal data
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You’re in a post about people outraged about an opt-in anonymous data sharing option on Plex, and you’re not worried about known security issues because you haven’t heard of anything bad happening yet?
Make it make sense.
I don't care if they probe for my media considering I block 99% of the world. Yes blah blah they could get around it. If someone really wants to see what I have on my media server that bad, I don't think I'd be able to stop them anyway.
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Text:
I consent to Plex to: (i) sell certain personal information (hashed emails, advertising identifiers) to third-parties for advertising and marketing purposes; and (ii) store and/or access certain personal information (advertising identifiers, IP address, content being watched) on my device(s) and share that information with Plex’s advertising partners. This data is used to deliver personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. Your consent applies to all devices on which you have Plex installed. You can withdraw your consent at any time in
Account Settings or using this page.Soure: https://www.plex.tv/vendors/
(Might have to clear cache)Can also read about the changes here:
https://www.plex.tv/about/privacy-legal/For those who aren't quite ready to delete their accounts get, this link buried on their privacy page can let you opt out: https://www.plex.tv/vendors-us
Not sure why "us" is in the URL, I'm in Canada
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I’ve had a lifetime plex pass for several years. Once I tried Jellyfin a few months ago it was all over. My “I’ll run both just in case” period lasted a week or two.
The downside is that Jellyfin will take more setup on your end, especially if you want to let other people connect securely to your server.
The upside is performance and responsiveness. Once I started using it I decided Plex had to go, even if I have to drive to each family member’s house to fix their shit. It was like moving between Linux and Windows, as far as one being designed to work and the other being designed to satisfy dozens of corporate KPIs.
Fortunately the setup for the end user is just as simple once your server is good to go. They just need URL, login, and password.
And since it’s all open source, there’s some fun diversity in clients. I use Finamp specifically for music, and there are audiobook focused ones.
Also a lifetime Plex holder. Plex wouldn't let me watch my local content without authenticating the other day... But my internet went out and I couldn't. Decided I'd swap to Jellyfin the first chance I could (couldn't that day because no internet)... So that's what I did today. It was painless and I'm never going back to Plex.
Disclaimer, I don't need access outside of my house so I didn't set any of the remote stuff up.
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This is specifically related to watching their free content. You can opt out of the sale & sharing of said data, which is used to play you targeted ads when watching their free content. I am not a big fan, but this is the typical "free" TV spiel. Was there something that changed recently or is it just being recognized now?
I have actually never considered watching Plex's free shows.
If I did see something I liked, I'd probably 'acquire' it and put it in my own library.
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For those who aren't quite ready to delete their accounts get, this link buried on their privacy page can let you opt out: https://www.plex.tv/vendors-us
Not sure why "us" is in the URL, I'm in Canada
That was very helpful. Thanks!
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Tailscale makes this easy if you are the only user.
I'll look into Tailscale then. I'm guessing there's something funky about adding additional users. I would eventually like to add one or two other people.
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haiyaaa...that explains it.
I have never had a smart TV worth a damn.
Yeah dude. Besides Plex, the TV is FUYOOOH!
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You’re in a post about people outraged about an opt-in anonymous data sharing option on Plex, and you’re not worried about known security issues because you haven’t heard of anything bad happening yet?
Make it make sense.
I'm not sure how a service selling my data and services having potential security issues are the same. Two different issues imo
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I am a devops engineer and application architect who spends their entire day developing automated docker deployments for custom applications from scratch and I manage all our reverse proxies and TLS termination and certificates.
5 years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you what a docker container really was. Thankfully migrating legacy apps to docker on Linux hosts is my full time job and it has allowed me to become proficient enough in a fairly short amount of time.
We all have to start somewhere and shitting on someone for not knowing something now will dissuade them from ever learning it and potentially remove a future contributor to the open source tech stack before they ever even get started.
If they said they had trouble understanding docker it would've been clearer, but they said Jellyfin was the issue.
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Unfortunately, that is just the system your TV runs on being slow. If you use a dedicated streaming device, you will have much better results.
wrote last edited by [email protected]Jellyfin with the same library takes mere seconds before I see the first movie/episode poster cards.
How do you explain this? Every other app is very quick to load on the TV... Plex is the only issue.
If you use a dedicated streaming device
What do you call a TV? The streaming isn't the problem, it's the loading or processing of data from the server, and/or transitions between views, that are the issues here.
Streaming is fine. Once I start a 4K HDR 5.1 movie with direct play (full quality), there is no issue, even when seeking. It's only the browsing and loading/displaying of data that is super slow. And only on Plex.
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It's the recent "We all hate Plex now" because they implemented a price in regards to the way we access content remotely because it was costing them too much to maintain for free. So anything that smells even remotely like they are trying to make money is getting the shocked and dismayed reaction. Usually followed by a dozen or so people talking about how they've ditch Plex ages ago for a truly free platform like jellyfin/Kodi/etc.
My friend in England uses my server all the time and neither of us have gotten that email about being charged for shared library yet lol.
Maybe im just the chosen one.
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Tailscale makes this easy if you are the only user.
Easy if the device you're trying to listen on has a tailscale app and a JellyFin app, which is unlikely unless you're using your phone or a tablet/pc.
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Yeah with VPN it's more straightforward. I wanted it accessible without which was more involved. Honestly the average user doesn't even know what tailscale or wireguard are, so you are already advanced using those
That's true, but tbh I only know about it because chat gpt put me onto it. I asked it how to access jellyfin outside my home and it told me tailscale and explained how to set it up pretty easily.
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For those who aren't quite ready to delete their accounts get, this link buried on their privacy page can let you opt out: https://www.plex.tv/vendors-us
Not sure why "us" is in the URL, I'm in Canada
*For now
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I’ve had a lifetime plex pass for several years. Once I tried Jellyfin a few months ago it was all over. My “I’ll run both just in case” period lasted a week or two.
The downside is that Jellyfin will take more setup on your end, especially if you want to let other people connect securely to your server.
The upside is performance and responsiveness. Once I started using it I decided Plex had to go, even if I have to drive to each family member’s house to fix their shit. It was like moving between Linux and Windows, as far as one being designed to work and the other being designed to satisfy dozens of corporate KPIs.
Fortunately the setup for the end user is just as simple once your server is good to go. They just need URL, login, and password.
And since it’s all open source, there’s some fun diversity in clients. I use Finamp specifically for music, and there are audiobook focused ones.
wrote last edited by [email protected]My suggestion: Get Symphonium in addition/to replace Finamp.
Much more advanced in what it can do.
Only downside: You can't exclude libraries. If you have a soundtrack-like library separate from the regular music library, it can't be separated. -
There are a lot of people here who simply cannot be bothered to figure out remote access
A weird one i saw today was actually "jellyfin took too many resources scanning my library" and 'if it doesn't have an SSO my family won't use it'
I think a lot of people just enjoy plex better and will accept any minor inconvenience as justification. That's fine though. I'll swear up and down that apple products are not worth the convenience, either, but there will always be people who simply like them more than others, and thats fine
I find it how many useres here almost scream "The year of linux" every day for every little grain of news Windows comes up.
And yet they do literally the same with Plex. -
Plexamp is what keeps me in the Plex ecosystem. I really like the “Mixes for you” and generating mixes based on listening habits. Have you found anything on jellyfin to do that for music?
wrote last edited by [email protected]Not listening habits. But symphonium can do genre and general mix.
And honestly it keeps you from hearing all the same stuff in every mix like Spotify (and seemingly Plexamp) does -
Also, me using Plex to host copies of my own software legally is not the same as operating a P2P service.
I'm not explaining this to you again. What you described is not legal on a US hosted service like Plex, and even most other countries with DRM exceptions for personal use do not include sharing outside your immediate household. Even if it's perfectly legal in your country, and the US can't touch you where you are, Plex is still obligated to abide by US restrictions. Good enough if that doesn't bother you, but it isn't completely without risk and you should be well aware of it.
if your concern is the govenrment overreach implications of having a portion of your data leaked, worrying about a smaller leak along the way of actively generating a larger leak is entirely pointless.
What exactly does "government overreach" mean in this context?
Using Google SSO independently is bad. Plex independently is bad. Using both together is worse. Using either while also breaking the law, when there's a perfectly acceptable way to do neither of those things and still just as easily break the law is a whole lot better.
Conversely, I’d argue that if you have a dozen users and are terrified that the cops are going to come and raid the… I’m gonna say meth lab you’re running on the side, we’re back to the conversation about how cool you are with that dozen users having their Jellyfin clients running on a bunch of Android devices, Smart TVs, Windows boxes or whatever else.
I'm just not a dumbass. Having a dozen users log in without any of them publicly pointing at me or my server IP is a hell of a lot safer than letting a private service log every sign-in and stream event of the server, and then letting a separate private service link those users to accounts with detailed personal information. Those people can install jellyfin on their phones and tablets all they want - google wouldn't know what servers those clients are connecting to anyway. And even if they did, my server is not associated with my personal details or ISP-assigned IP address. Maybe you just didn't know that, idk.
I came into this argument from the UX angle, you guys are increasingly convincing me that a significant disincentive for self-hosting to become mainstream
Using a google SSO isn't a prerequisite for self-hosting becoming mainstream. Maybe SSO generally is, but there are a dozen other ways to achieve the same thing. Maybe I don't care if it becomes mainstream? Maybe what I actually want is for people to learn tech self-sufficiency so that we're not indefinitely reliant on SAAS. Maybe i'm content with my special little hobby and I'd rather point and laugh at people who get fucked over by services they delude themselves into believing won't ever screw them, just because they can't be bothered to learn a new skill.
you guys are increasingly convincing me that a significant disincentive for self-hosting to become mainstream is that its entire community is convinced that they are doing something wrong, apparently
If you're as concerned with self-hosting becoming as mainstream as you claim you are, then I'd imagine you'd be more concerned with the late-stage capitalist reality of media distribution and the increasingly restrictive laws surrounding its use. Where I live, the legal structure that protects the right to self sufficiency is very much under question, and continues to get worse. I got burned several times in the napster/limewire days, before it was established precedent that sharing digital copyright material was illegal, and unheard of still that anyone actually got punished for it. I know better than most that you can't count on those protections indefinitely.
But as an anarchist, I think a little bit of crime is good, actually. More people should be doing crime. But if you're gonna do it, do the rest of us a favor and don't be a dumbass about it.
You are saying many things about the legality of this, especially internationally and regarding what Plex is or isn't obligated to do, that are a bit of a stretch. But man, are they put in context by the admission of left wing cosplay there at the end where you concede you do think "a little bit of crime is good, actually", which explains a lot of the hack the world mentality and why you feel so cool and dangerous by sharing some torrents you got with a slightly larger group of people than your direct family.
I still do think that's counterproductive if you ever want a scenario where the late-capitalist media distribution landscape gets at least a modicum of competition from more reasonable and sustainable alternatives. That you prefer to feel edgy than to propose a viable scenario for that is all well and good, but I wish you didn't feel the need to do that at people.
For the record, you are still wrong about SSO. Again it makes sense that if you're cosplaying cops and robbers "this thing bad, this thing bad, both together worse" sounds reasonable, but if you really were at risk of any real legal liability that's really not how that would play out. In the real world ANY leak of that information from any source would be an absolute problem. So the Google login could be a problem by itself, and the Plex data gathering would be a much bigger problem by itself, but both together would just mean you are exactly as screwed as with just one.
But you think it's cool to crap on Google (which I guess it is) and are cosplaying, so that's a cool thing to perform outrage about even if it doesn't really matter in this scenario. Which I'm increasingly realizing is all this conversation is about, from the "I'm so good at networking and system administration" braggadocio to the "I'm such a dangerous anarchist criminal that doesn't give a crap about the rules because I'm so good they can't catch me" stuff.
FWIW, I do care about self-hosting as a viable commercial alternative and about a legal framework to support it, but even if I didn't think it was possible (which it is, and some people at least are working along those lines) I am not ready to give up on the changes required to get there just to feel cool on the Internet. You do you, though, just... try not to scare the normies away. Not that there are any normies around here anyway, so I guess we're safe on that front.
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Since I originally started using it on my everyday use Windows PC via an exe, no I did not hahahaha. Now I have it running in Open Media Vault on my NAS.
You can run Jellyfin as exe too.
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Seeing the replies in this thread it kinda makes me wonder what Plex actually has to do for these zealots to quit using their platform.
Like do they literally have to steal naked pictures of you and pass them around the office? Like wtf.
Tbh, the way people push Jellyfin every single time Plex is mentioned is so extremely annoying that I'm now even less inclined to use it, especially the way the JF zelots completely ignored the legit reason that most people use it.
