Plex now want to SELL your personal data
-
"still even mentions plex"
I've been using plex for a LONG time, and bought a lifetime plexpass 12 years ago. I'm pretty sure I haven't started a thread on Lemmy regarding Plex, but I'm sure I'm not alone as a LONG TIME user. Plex just works for me and cost me $75 in 2013. Right now I've got no pressing reason to switch.
If they remove my plexpass features, or start showing me ads / making my user experience worse, then I'll probably look to change, and won't participate in these awful 'plex' posts.
P.S. we should encourage as much new content on Lemmy as possible if you ask me.
Another longtime user here. If you haven't already, you might want to disable autoupdates on all your devices. The "new experience" is not without its controversies.
-
Jellyfin is hardly a no-brainer. I set it up out of curiosity a few weeks ago and my first question was how do I give access to my friends and family. So I searched, and all of the results were talking about setting up a VPN or a reverse proxy or whatever. Man, I just want to tell my mom "install this app on your tv and log in", which is exactly what Plex does.
I get that Plex is enshittifying, but pretending Jellyfin is a drop-in replacement is delusional.
Jellyfin is a no-brainer. Publishing services on the Internet is complex.
-
What is Plex?
Its like jellyfin but sells your data
-
For me it's PlexAmp and the few tech-illiterate friends I have who use my server for video streaming. 99% of the time, I just watch movies on my desktop with VLC player but I've yet to find a self-hosting music player half as good as PlexAmp
For me it’s chromecast support. Maybe Jellyfin has that now but it didn’t last time I checked.
-
I mean, even in that regard, I did not find it that hard, but I do have a domain.
As I said, most people don't have that nor do they want to set it up.
-
As I said, most people don't have that nor do they want to set it up.
I wasn't ignoring you. I explicitly put the caveat after "but" specifically because of what you said.
-
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/wrote on last edited by [email protected]While selling data in general is shitty, I want to push back on the fear mongering a little bit.
This only applies to new accounts, can be opt-out of, and doesn’t apply to self-hosted content.
-
Can't you just send your link to them over SMS, IM, or email? Is the main difference that you can do this from the UI?
I guess entering a code on the TV is pretty cool though. Maybe I'll poke around in the Jellyfin community to see what the interest is in such a feature, because it should be possible w/ minimal hosting costs.
Yeah, you have two options, as the server owner:
-
You can enter a user's email from the Plex UI to invite a user to your library. The user then gets an email asking them to sign up if they don't already have an account.
-
You can generate/send a link to join, any way you choose.
Once signed up, the user can accept the library invitation, then they login to the TV or other device. The code is used for the TV login process, like on other streaming platforms. But yeah, you could do an account-less version of this for Jellyfin, which I think laypeople would like.
-
-
I wasn't ignoring you. I explicitly put the caveat after "but" specifically because of what you said.
Gotcha. I read the tone differently, but all good.
-
Same. I bought the lifetime pass on sale many years ago, my setup is still working fine without me having to have touched it for at least the past 3 years outside of applying an update from time to time. I don't stream their free shows or movies and have those setup so that they don't even show up as an option on my tv.
Do I wish it was still the same company it was a decade ago? Of course... but so far they haven't impacted my experience to the point that I feel the need to replace it with something else. The second that happens I will be spinning up Jellyfin.
Yep, exactly, when they screw me I'll leave
-
The whole anti Google holier than thou is annoying at these levels.
Ok fine, don't use Google. But telling your friends and loved ones to switch email providers over your crusade is worse than vegans telling you about their diet.
I'm all for kicking Google to the curb. I'm not for shoving my beliefs down other people's throats.
Ok but there are a million SSO options out there - just because someone doesn't want to allow google as a SSO provider doesn't mean they're telling anyone they have to switch fucking email services.
If you want a remote service to handle your authentication you don't have to use google. I feel like that's something I shouldn't have to point out in a self-hosting community on an open-source and federated social media platform.
-
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/wrote on last edited by [email protected]"Hashed emails". Besides the fact that they can match up a hash from one source to a hash from another source to link them to the same person (they never said they'd salt them), emails often have enough predictability to break the hash. Assuming they all end in "@gmail.com", "@outlook.com", or "@yahoo.com" will get you the vast majority of emails out there. Unlike a good password scheme, people don't shove a lot of random data into their email addresses.
-
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/wrote on last edited by [email protected]content being watched) on my device(s) and share that information with Plex’s advertising partners
That is a honey pot rights holders will be falling over themselves to pay Plex for access to once they hear about it.
Been telling anyone that would listen that they need to get out of Plex since they implemented that first iteration of trying to require you to sign into your own self hosted server with a Plex.tv account. They were telegraphing what direction they were going in with that kind of user hostile move.
Lots of responses about how it was easy to get around so no big deal (or worse that they liked it for some coping mechanism reason) and that nothing else was as easy and feature rich as Plex so it was worth it.
Well now a few years down the road from that they are now going to use that beach head on everyone's Plex server they can to collect what is being watched and sell it to the highest bidder.
-
You’re right I could be helping out I mom the open source side, but I really struggle to even turn on my Pc when not working (mental health) so don’t feel I am the best person to contribute.
This is why my focus has been on getting friends and family to stop spending money on streaming services as every little helps.
You’re correct in that the only thing that matters to me is that people I care about save money. That’s it. I’m in awe of people doing more than me, but we can only do what we feel we are able. Together it all makes a difference.
You sound like me. I hope you can find a way to flip your focus: your time outside work should be way more about you than it sounds like your work life is letting it be.
Maybe you are one of the very few with a meaningful job. If not, consider trying to treat your job like the bullshit it is and use your best cycles outside work on stuff that will really make you happy.
-
Yeah, the sad reality is that Plex’s setup experience is much smoother. And when you’re trying to convert people, the single largest obstacle is often social inertia. So lowering the barriers to entry is extremely important. My mother-in-law would need to sideload the Jellyfin app onto her TV, but Plex is available right on its app store.
Luckily, you can run both side by side. Jellyfin for me and my more tech-literate friends, Plex for those who don’t know/don’t care to learn.
For me it’s a trade-off: yes Plex is less good than Jellyfin from a data/cost perspective. But so far the UI of Plex (which is not perfect mind you), availability of Plexamp (which honestly is very very good), and the fact that I don’t have to pay for it anymore after buying lifetime swings the scale towards Plex for me.
If Plex somehow canceled my lifetime or forced ads on my shows or something, that would be a line — but making me opt out of selling my data is not that line for me.
-
I don’t know that Google gets to log your access in that scenario, Plex is just using their login system
Huh? Google would, at a minimum, know what service is requesting authentication, and plex would know which google user account is being used to authenticate. Maybe they hash that information, but why would anyone trust that? Even if you're not breaking any laws with what you're hosting on your plex account, I totally understand why someone might not like the idea of google or plex having data about the identities of users accessing your server and what services are being run from it.
-
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/If we find out "I do not consent" opts out, I'm fine with it. If we find out "I do not consent" leads to a "Close our account" page, it's time for pitchforks, especially since they recently had a huge sale on lifetime memberships.
-
I let Radarr and Sonarr handle that (including creating NFO metadata and fanart files), Kodi now only parses/syncs that local data.
This change was a huge improvement for me, though I am using SMB and not NFS. (But I assume NFS would be more robust than SMB.)
Same here regarding *arrs handling the data movement/layout and nfo files. I even have the "Connect" sections for each set to trigger rescans, but it seems especially for files that get replaced by a more optimal version, a duplicate is left over in kodi alongside the new one which only goes away when you try and play it. I tried switching to a dedicated mysql instance for shits and giggles, no effect. Some day I'll actually dig in the logs.
-
Conversely, the average FOSS programmer has no idea how to either design for simplicity or document for the novice.
I actually think most of them do, it's just that the simple designs aren't universal enough to gain much traction in a FOSS community.
-
While selling data in general is shitty, I want to push back on the fear mongering a little bit.
This only applies to new accounts, can be opt-out of, and doesn’t apply to self-hosted content.
…for now.
