As you may have seen Plex decided it was OK today to send an email showing me what my friends have been watching. To be clear, this is Plex telling other people what I’ve been watching from my server, with my files, and this is not OK.
We all knew it was a matter of time before Plex started collecting data on our libraries and sharing it with advertisers. What happened to their “we don’t know, and don’t want to know, what is on your server”?. This, for me, is proof that those fears were absolutely founded in reality. On what planet would I ever want this information to be shared with friends on family on an OPT OUT basis?
It’s totally unacceptable to collect this data in the first place. It’s totally unacceptable to share this information with uniquely identifiable information. And it’s totally unacceptable to do this without explicitly asking me if it’s OK.
Unfortunately there is nothing you can do about this as a server admin, because technically these are Plex users and their marketing email preferences are controlled on the user side in the Plex website preferences. Not on your server.
This is an absolutely egregious overreach.
Thank goodness there are alternatives available in the form of Jellyfin and Emby. I left my Plex server up after the Jellyfin January challenge we did on the Self-Hosted podcast but because of this I feel that I have no choice but to take it down for good.
Jellyfin FTW!
Made the switch to JF about 6 months ago, Never looked back!
JF has no proper chromecast support… ☹️😤
You have to use the Play Store version
iPhone has no Play Store. I got the app from the AppStore for iPhone, no luck, chromecast does not work.
What do you mean? I have used chromecast with Jellyfin many times.
Chromecast in JF never worked…
When I click the chromecast icon in JF “Play On” (top right) I get “Google Cast Unsupported”.How did you manage to get it working?
Android required, no iphonies
Jk, i eagerly await ios support but for now android only
You need to be hosting jellyfin behind a reverse proxy so that it works through https. Chromecast doesn’t support unsecured sources.
Yup… I have a reverse proxy. Chromecast in Emby works, Chromecast in JellyFin doesn’t. Really weird.
Yes it does.
Is it supported on tv makers?
Wdym TV makers?
They mean Smart TVs. My Dad’s Samsung TV has a Plex app, but no way to install anything like Kodi that would let him use Jellyfin instead of Plex to serve media.
There’s a Jellyfin app for Tizen (Samsung TV) but it’s kinda stupid to get installed and is kinda sluggish. Actual playback is perfect however.
His TV is a few years old, so I’m not sure if it uses Tizen but I’ll have a look, thanks.
If it helps, I think my TV is either 2018 or 2019 and Jellyfin app works. But yeah definitely take a look
Not sure about if Samsung TV has Google play store where the jellyfin or infuse app exist, but you can do chromecast / airplay if not Google play store
Samsung TVs run Tizen OS, not Android TV, so obviously no “Google Play Store”.
Also apps are pretty restricted, most are just able to use web-technologies, so nothing heavy-handed.
The process in getting TV Apps approved on platforms like Samsung’s Tizen OS is pretty annoying for most developers/open-source stuff.
There is an actual app for Tizen TVs, but it needs to be sideloaded manually: https://github.com/jeppevinkel/jellyfin-tizen-builds
Then why use the shit when you can get a GoogleTV stick for less than 20 bucks.
Definitely no Play Store on his TV. I don’t think it has any Chromecast /Airplay apps either, but even if it does I don’t think they’re any substitute for Plex or Jellyfin.
Amazon stick is the cheapest (easy) way to turn any TV into a Jellyfin TV.
Personally, I’m getting increasingly annoyed with my Fire Stick. It’s kind of sluggish, and very locked-down. You used to be able to sideload a custom home launcher, but Amazon is cracking down on that. Their launcher is filled with bloat and ads. Recently I’ve noticed mine auto-playing Amazon Prime video trailers on boot which makes me want to throw it out the window.
I have JF installed on my Samsung (Tizen) TV and it works great. And the TV will auto-launch back into JF on boot… something I wish Fire Stick allowed.
There is your answer.
It says available for Android TV and WebOS. Which are the TV OSes now most of the time.
Guess it’s too late to change the stupid name.
Problem is my user base are TV and mostly non technical people. No way they setup and maintain a JellyFin install. That’s why Plex just wins.
What? Why would they need to setup a whole install to use your server? Just connect to the server in one of the numerous apps and login to your account?
I left Plex as soon as they made it a pain to not use cloud logins.
Wtf? Why are you asking me to look g into MY system through your server? Get outta here.
That’s why I just can’t trust proprietary software anymore. Some of it is unavoidable though without making things unnecessarily hard/worse for yourself.
Shit like this gets pulled all the time, most of it is probably never discovered because it’s all hidden somewhere deep in their executables/firmware/binary blobs or whatever shit they push onto you…
Scarily, one can opt to receiving the summaries, but I see no tick box for sharing _my_ activity with friends???
You can set it in your profile settings
But it’s worrying if it’s opt-out and not opt-in - even if they did prompt me to look at it when I first logged in after the added the Friends Discovery thing. Although the disclaimer suggests that for US users at least it might be opt-in, I honestly don’t remember what the default was for me.
Ahh, thanks!
Thanks for sharing this. How do I get to the settings page you showed in the screenshot?
It seems to be the following:
- Go to https://app.plex.tv/desktop/#!/profile/edit
- Click on “Privacy Settings” at the bottom of the page
- Dialog from the screenshot pops up
I assume this stuff is US only at the mo’ because I can’t see those settings at all.
This here. This setting is absolutely controllable and if memory serves me right i had to enable it when the feature rolled out. In fact, I just made a brand new account and after signing in the very first option is to either accept or change the setting.
the fuck?
it’s a media server. Why do I want ‘friends’ involved at all?
Right - it’s controlled server side by Plex and so far as I can tell there’s nothing you can do. Your friends would have to go in and turn it off in their accounts. It’s disgusting.
I guess we’re getting pitchforks out then!
What other option do we have? Either stop using it or attempt to get Plex to respond and change their ways.
Plex haven’t taken user feedback into consideration for years. They seem to be making universally hated features exclusively.
Your realistic options are to accept Plex as it is, or switch to something else.
Plex haven’t taken user feedback into consideration for years. They seem to be making universally hated features exclusively
Reason I left for emby years ago was because they kept making the UI worse with no option to customize it at all. Came to find out a bit later the reason for that was to push their own stuff on users
I’ve been a Flex Pass lifetime user since 2018 and I honestly feel like I got my money’s worth during that time so I can’t complain too much, but I’m absolutely ready to switch. They only focus on money-grab features these days, and playback & subtitle issues are getting worse every update.
I never bothered _too_ much about the privacy stuff, but after they got so “me me me” focused I trust them less with my data.
I’m just waiting for the Jellyfin Tizen-version to be approved (Samsung OS “app store”) and once that’s done I’m immediately switching.
I have Jellyfin on Chromecast, but unfortunately my TV doesn’t supports Dolby Atmos passthrough, so only native apps support it (+ Chromecast is just a bit sluggish)
I think you can disable it here:
Settings > Account > Sync my watch state and ratings
It’s kind of disguised as some feature to allow you to sync movie status among all plex servers. But disabling this would probably disable their ability to see it.
FYI, my setting is marked inactive, I do remember the in-your-face popup on my tv and I disabled all of the sharing. Still got an email this morning.
You Plex and Emby users deserve what you get
Jellyfin is only good choice
What is the point of self hosting proprietary shit ?
Plex has always been for retards, people who are 7 years behind the tech-curve. You deserve this. They’re just protecting themselves from the inevitable, the inevitable that you caused by misusing their software to do illegal things. Yes, I am a pirate myself so I know what this is really about. You’re morons.
Y’all have friends on Plex? That’s the dumbest thing I’ve read this whole week.
Making me more glad i never had plex. DLNA ftw!
I’ve had plex and the arrs going but without a VPN (USA), got hundreds of take down notices sent to an old email address and went to spam folder, and two personal paper letters from ISP. I decided to shut down the arrs and haven’t torrented in about a few months.
A few weeks ago I added someone on plex to share my media with. Just got a 3rd letter from my ISP for sharing media. Plex is the only thing running that could cause this.
Time to finally shut it down and load Jellyfin. It’s been coming for some time; but this is the nail in the coffin.
The sheer quantity of analytics from both Plex clients and servers, regardless of what options you select, is the number one blocked item on my Adguard Home install. Plex is, by no stretch of the imagination, not at all respectful of privacy.
Plex has sadly lost its way, and this year I finally switched over to Jellyfin and it’s much better than the subsequent years I’ve tried to move across. Other than simplicity of exposing your server on the internet, Plex’s value proposition has tanked.
Uses Plex over real open source like jellyfin and is surprised when his data is scraped. Get a clue then I’ll care
This is why I use Kodi. Nothing leaves my home network, and I directly control all data myself
Well, one of the reasons I use Kodi at least
Do any of you check your privacy settings? Because you can turn off sharing data with other users.
I use Synology Video Station.
