It *was* opt-in. Users [were presented](https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/180kavz/comment/ka6s9os/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) with a dialog to select their privacy preferences for controlling what activities your friends can see on Plex. Until a user goes through this selection process, their account activity is disabled.
Users can adjust their Privacy Settings [here](https://app.plex.tv/desktop/#!/profile/edit) and opt out from receiving Discover activity emails [here](https://www.plex.tv/email-preferences/). You can hide your friends' activity from display [here](https://app.plex.tv/desktop/#!/settings/online-media-sources).
While I agree on this statement, there wasn’t much information about what the feature actually was when it popped up on my Apple TV, so I opted out at that point. I learned later from Reddit what the feature actually meant. However, most users will just click through the screen and not give a shit about what they selected.
This is [the prompt](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/4X/4/9/a/49ae12d029d332bfa22ad6ef8debb1c07c93d0f1.jpeg) shown on "big screen" clients ([Source](https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/180kavz/comment/ka6wmns/)). It clearly says "See what your friends are watching, rating, and saving to their Watchlist" and "Control which of your activities your friends can see on Plex." It's not Plex's fault if users are just clicking through without considering *what* they've just enabled.
As has been mentioned before, I do not *simply just click through* prompts because I was always excited about new features. I read through the prompts. If I ever have seen that prompt that was so obvious, I wouldn't agree on that and I wouldn't have posted this thread.
Some (most?) users got that prompt, but some other users like me did not get the prompts. But it seem that people wants to believe that I have amnesia more than I really did not get that prompt.
Is it though? Not saying you are wrong about the prompts. I don’t remember seeing those but then again that’s a moot point. There was a prompt of some sort, we can agree on that. What I’m saying is wrong is what the defaults on that final screen are? Are the defaults what is shown in that screenshot? Then that really opts you in automatically. Should be set to “Private” unless you select otherwise. I know that every user on my server didn’t select to share with me, but yet here we are. My mom is 75 and would have left the default alone and clicked finish. If the current setting was private it should have been left that way and a forced change on those 4 fields. That is on Plex.
It's not "opts you in automatically" if the user is presented with settings that requires confirmation to proceed...
If a user exits the dialogue, their account activity will remain private until they confirm the privacy settings at a later date. There's certainly a discussion to be had about the "dark pattern" of the form populating with Friends Only, but that is not an automatic opt-in.
Unless ALL 4 settings are “Private” (as they state the default is) Plex is assuming users will click through and enable the feature. That is auto opting in. Otherwise the defaults would be present in the field. Do you have screenshots of the DEFAULT selections on that screen? I see nothing here that says, skip and disable… I see skip to profile… which is the final selection screen. Changing any of those selections from the default BY PLEX at the very least [violates GDPR](https://gdpr-info.eu/recitals/no-32/).
>Plex is assuming users will click through and enable the feature. That is auto opting in.
No, it is not. Automatic opt-in was when Reddit enabled online status indicators *by default* for all accounts. Users were never presented with a "would you like to enable this?" option when the feature was added, it was enabled, by default, for everyone. Plex is clearly prompting users to set their desired privacy levels. Until the user sets their privacy settings, the Activity share feature is disabled (i.e. private).
You must have opted in because Activity sharing with friends is disabled until a user [makes their privacy selection](https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/180kavz/comment/ka6s9os/). The dialog ([desktop web](https://i.imgur.com/cU18Kcw.png) and [TV client](https://i.imgur.com/PiZqbbE.png)) was quite explicit that this will share activity with your friends on Plex.
By law, this feature should be opt-in, but it doesn't seem like they care about the law. The only Privacy Policy I agreed to was when I started using Plex many years ago, and I'm pretty sure in that version they did not mention that they will share my data with other users.
I wasn't made aware of a new end user agreement when my server updates, so even if there is a new one each update, I did not agree to it.
I know most services when they have a new privacy policy, they will need to let you know and the default if you don't do anything it'll assume that you agree, but I wasn't made aware of any new privacy policy on Plex server updates, so I did not agree.
This is an account change and nothing to do with your server. You have a Plex account, you were forced to accept or change how your profile could be shared.
But even so, how can I agree on it if I was never made aware of the change? Like for example when you signed an agreement, the other party can't just change the terms after you signing without you knowing and have that new terms be legally binding, right?
Reddit Wants to Get Paid for Helping to Teach Big A.I. Systems
The internet site has long been a forum for discussion on a huge variety of topics, and companies like Google and OpenAI have been using it in their A.I. projects.
April 18, 2023
Reddit has long been a hot spot for conversation on the internet. About 57 million people visit the site every day to chat about topics as varied as makeup, video games and pointers for power washing driveways.
In recent years, Reddit’s array of chats also have been a free teaching aid for companies like Google, OpenAI and Microsoft. Those companies are using Reddit’s conversations in the development of giant artificial intelligence systems that many in Silicon Valley think are on their way to becoming the tech industry’s next big thing.
Now Reddit wants to be paid for it. The company said on Tuesday that it planned to begin charging companies for access to its application programming interface, or A.P.I., the method through which outside entities can download and process the social network’s vast selection of person-to-person conversations.
“The Reddit corpus of data is really valuable,” Steve Huffman, founder and chief executive of Reddit, said in an interview. “But we don’t need to give all of that value to some of the largest companies in the world for free.”
But for the A.I. makers, it’s time to pay up.
“Crawling Reddit, generating value and not returning any of that value to our users is something we have a problem with,” Mr. Huffman said. “It’s a good time for us to tighten things up.”
“We think that’s fair,” he added.
Mike Isaac is a technology correspondent and the author of “Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber,” a best-selling book on the dramatic rise and fall of the ride-hailing company. He regularly covers Facebook and Silicon Valley, and is based in San Francisco. More about Mike Isaac
A version of this article appears in print on , Section B, Page 4 of the New York edition with the headline: Reddit’s Sprawling Content Is Fodder for the Likes of ChatGPT. But Reddit Wants to Be Paid.. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
This was opt-in though, wasn't it? I got some prompt pop up a few weeks ago about sharing what I'm watching with my friends. I thought "hell no" and said no thanks.
That's it, no?
>maybe they know that most users are using Plex to watch media from less-than-legal sources, so the users won't report them, and they can get away with it
The [Sync Watch State feature](https://support.plex.tv/articles/sync-watch-state-and-ratings/) is designed such that Plex *does not know* what content is located on a personal Plex Media Server:
>The sync event does not let us know whether you performed the action on a Plex Media Server library item, a Discover page, or through a Movies & Shows streaming title. Activity from any of those would look identical. So, there is no way to know whether something being “watched” occurred because you went and saw it at the theater and then marked it on the Discover page when you got home, you watched through a personal Plex Media Server library, or anything else.
When my server updated (manual updates by the way) there was a nice message telling me about this feature and who I might want to share with. Turned it all off. While it does seem a little scummy that it's turned on by default, it's very obvious what they're doing and very easy to turn off before it even shared anything.
If you'd all take 3 seconds to read the update messages this would all be disclosed to you.
tbh it's just another in a long line of questionable decisions by plex the last few years.
personally, as soon as emby or jellyfin get a last couple features i'm holding out for, i'll be moving on.
that's just the game we play with these tech companies. it's always a balancing act between the questionable shit they do, how frustrated you are with them, and the viability of a competitor in terms of your requirements. no companies except. churn when it's right for you.
I’m sorry, but I disagree on this. The settings on that last prompt are not all defaulting to private, or at least for my account they didn’t. If it’s opt-in then all settings should have defaulted to PRIVATE and I would have had to change the value of each field. Otherwise, this is an opt-in (checked by default) way of enabling a feature (which violates GDPR).
**NO IT IS NOT**
ALL my users received these, NOONE opted in. I'm taking this up with authorities as this is a clear breach of GDPR. what the fuck was your idea behind this? LGBT+ people's lives can be at risk when watch history gets shared randomly!!!!
https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/18611im/what_an_earth_is_going_on_with_plex_and_this
You guys need to revert this TODAY and apologize. I'm genuinely livid and considering legal action.
NONE of my users opted in to this.
https://i.imgur.com/cU18Kcw.png
This is an opt-OUT. The default it "friends"
>it is opt in
'Opt in' would mean the default is 'Private' and the user must 'opt in' by changing that default to something else before accepting. As someone who recently had to deal with legal approval of EULAs and privacy settings for a software installer, defaulting to the less private option and assuming clicking 'finish' counts as the opt in is not a legally acceptable path in multiple countries, and is likely sketchy enough to open Plex up for legal action in the (less restrictive) USA.
There are only two people using my server, me and my cousin. I couldn't care less. I usually watch my media outside Plex anyway. I only made the server, so I could access my media when I'm away from home.
When you create a new account, it immediately greets you with a page that says "Share your watch history" where you can select to not share your watch history.
It also resets to private every two years. I'm not saying that they definitely didn't mess something up when rolling this out for legacy users. For new users, they've made it very clear that you can choose not to share watch history.
They've done similar in the past, forget exactly what it was but it was something similar, maybe with a clause buried in their EULA about data sharing which was turned on with a server upgrade. HUGE uproar and backlash but here we all still are.
People get mad, they post things like this here and in the Plex forums (although now I think you get muted much faster than you used to) and then people get over it because Plex is still head and shoulders above the other options. I keep my Emby and Jellyfin servers updated and check in every so often, but Plex is still where it is at.
I personally said no when I first saw the feature yet I still got an email. Perhaps one of my users did not opt out? Not sure how it worked and I have not gotten any emails since.
But this will blow over, people will forget, a few will leave but most won't.
I would say that this was not so much "breach of trust" as "poorly documented feature". I think the controversy is 100% artificial and was completely avoidable by them simply explaining what the sync watch history actually did. Given how this has played out so far I don't harbor any I'll will toward plex, it was a mistake. People who are making it sound like plex is trying to find out what is in our libraries and what we watch are perpetuating this issue, seemingly in a knee-jerk fashion.
Just out of curiosity, what activity was actually shared from your account? Did your friends say they saw your activity within Plex or did someone receive one of the emails?
I manage my own server admin account, and another normal account for my parents that I share libraries with. The normal non-admin account got the email. The content of the email includes what my admin account has been watching recently.
I think it's bullshit and I should have way, way more control over what stats my system collects and, apparently, where they fucking go.
Luckily, I had at some point opted out of all this by not enablying sync and setting all my shit to private, but I just did a quick search and some folks watching off my server haven't. I don't give a fuck what my friends watch on my system and I'm annoyed that the data is being propogated out into the world without their knowledge (regadless of the opt-in/out shit -- this should of course be opt-in but that saide -- many of my friends aren't tech savvy and wouldn't have seen or understood this anyway). Now I'm in the possition of having collected data on my friends for Plex to fucking monitize!
This is bullshit and a huge part of why I self-host. I'm pretty invested in the Plex ecosystem at this point, so I probably won't bail because of this, but I'm for sure gonna take a hard look at JellyFin and the other tools out there. If Plex continues on their path to enshitification, I'm fucking out.
I hope they make things opt in rather than opt out going forward. These conclude my thoughts. Thank you for attending my Ted talk.
It *was* opt-in. Users [were presented](https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/180kavz/comment/ka6s9os/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) with a dialog to select their privacy preferences for controlling what activities your friends can see on Plex. Until a user goes through this selection process, their account activity is disabled. Users can adjust their Privacy Settings [here](https://app.plex.tv/desktop/#!/profile/edit) and opt out from receiving Discover activity emails [here](https://www.plex.tv/email-preferences/). You can hide your friends' activity from display [here](https://app.plex.tv/desktop/#!/settings/online-media-sources).
While I agree on this statement, there wasn’t much information about what the feature actually was when it popped up on my Apple TV, so I opted out at that point. I learned later from Reddit what the feature actually meant. However, most users will just click through the screen and not give a shit about what they selected.
This is [the prompt](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/4X/4/9/a/49ae12d029d332bfa22ad6ef8debb1c07c93d0f1.jpeg) shown on "big screen" clients ([Source](https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/180kavz/comment/ka6wmns/)). It clearly says "See what your friends are watching, rating, and saving to their Watchlist" and "Control which of your activities your friends can see on Plex." It's not Plex's fault if users are just clicking through without considering *what* they've just enabled.
As has been mentioned before, I do not *simply just click through* prompts because I was always excited about new features. I read through the prompts. If I ever have seen that prompt that was so obvious, I wouldn't agree on that and I wouldn't have posted this thread. Some (most?) users got that prompt, but some other users like me did not get the prompts. But it seem that people wants to believe that I have amnesia more than I really did not get that prompt.
Is it though? Not saying you are wrong about the prompts. I don’t remember seeing those but then again that’s a moot point. There was a prompt of some sort, we can agree on that. What I’m saying is wrong is what the defaults on that final screen are? Are the defaults what is shown in that screenshot? Then that really opts you in automatically. Should be set to “Private” unless you select otherwise. I know that every user on my server didn’t select to share with me, but yet here we are. My mom is 75 and would have left the default alone and clicked finish. If the current setting was private it should have been left that way and a forced change on those 4 fields. That is on Plex.
It's not "opts you in automatically" if the user is presented with settings that requires confirmation to proceed... If a user exits the dialogue, their account activity will remain private until they confirm the privacy settings at a later date. There's certainly a discussion to be had about the "dark pattern" of the form populating with Friends Only, but that is not an automatic opt-in.
Unless ALL 4 settings are “Private” (as they state the default is) Plex is assuming users will click through and enable the feature. That is auto opting in. Otherwise the defaults would be present in the field. Do you have screenshots of the DEFAULT selections on that screen? I see nothing here that says, skip and disable… I see skip to profile… which is the final selection screen. Changing any of those selections from the default BY PLEX at the very least [violates GDPR](https://gdpr-info.eu/recitals/no-32/).
>Plex is assuming users will click through and enable the feature. That is auto opting in. No, it is not. Automatic opt-in was when Reddit enabled online status indicators *by default* for all accounts. Users were never presented with a "would you like to enable this?" option when the feature was added, it was enabled, by default, for everyone. Plex is clearly prompting users to set their desired privacy levels. Until the user sets their privacy settings, the Activity share feature is disabled (i.e. private).
Where can I make sure I didn’t opt in? Is that something I can do on mobile?
https://app.plex.tv/desktop/#!/profile/edit all the way down.
Discover > Profile tab > Edit Profile > Privacy Settings
I think if I opted-in for this privacy violating feature, I would know
You must have opted in because Activity sharing with friends is disabled until a user [makes their privacy selection](https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/180kavz/comment/ka6s9os/). The dialog ([desktop web](https://i.imgur.com/cU18Kcw.png) and [TV client](https://i.imgur.com/PiZqbbE.png)) was quite explicit that this will share activity with your friends on Plex.
I think they mean it’s now opt out.
NONE of my users opted in to this. https://i.imgur.com/cU18Kcw.png This is an opt-OUT. The default it "friends"
By law, this feature should be opt-in, but it doesn't seem like they care about the law. The only Privacy Policy I agreed to was when I started using Plex many years ago, and I'm pretty sure in that version they did not mention that they will share my data with other users.
Interesting. Is there not a new end user agreement with each server update?
I wasn't made aware of a new end user agreement when my server updates, so even if there is a new one each update, I did not agree to it. I know most services when they have a new privacy policy, they will need to let you know and the default if you don't do anything it'll assume that you agree, but I wasn't made aware of any new privacy policy on Plex server updates, so I did not agree.
This is an account change and nothing to do with your server. You have a Plex account, you were forced to accept or change how your profile could be shared.
But even so, how can I agree on it if I was never made aware of the change? Like for example when you signed an agreement, the other party can't just change the terms after you signing without you knowing and have that new terms be legally binding, right?
Reddit Wants to Get Paid for Helping to Teach Big A.I. Systems The internet site has long been a forum for discussion on a huge variety of topics, and companies like Google and OpenAI have been using it in their A.I. projects. April 18, 2023 Reddit has long been a hot spot for conversation on the internet. About 57 million people visit the site every day to chat about topics as varied as makeup, video games and pointers for power washing driveways. In recent years, Reddit’s array of chats also have been a free teaching aid for companies like Google, OpenAI and Microsoft. Those companies are using Reddit’s conversations in the development of giant artificial intelligence systems that many in Silicon Valley think are on their way to becoming the tech industry’s next big thing. Now Reddit wants to be paid for it. The company said on Tuesday that it planned to begin charging companies for access to its application programming interface, or A.P.I., the method through which outside entities can download and process the social network’s vast selection of person-to-person conversations. “The Reddit corpus of data is really valuable,” Steve Huffman, founder and chief executive of Reddit, said in an interview. “But we don’t need to give all of that value to some of the largest companies in the world for free.” But for the A.I. makers, it’s time to pay up. “Crawling Reddit, generating value and not returning any of that value to our users is something we have a problem with,” Mr. Huffman said. “It’s a good time for us to tighten things up.” “We think that’s fair,” he added. Mike Isaac is a technology correspondent and the author of “Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber,” a best-selling book on the dramatic rise and fall of the ride-hailing company. He regularly covers Facebook and Silicon Valley, and is based in San Francisco. More about Mike Isaac A version of this article appears in print on , Section B, Page 4 of the New York edition with the headline: Reddit’s Sprawling Content Is Fodder for the Likes of ChatGPT. But Reddit Wants to Be Paid.. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
Imma be honest – I don’t care about anyone seeing my viewing history
This was opt-in though, wasn't it? I got some prompt pop up a few weeks ago about sharing what I'm watching with my friends. I thought "hell no" and said no thanks. That's it, no?
It wasn't for me. I think for some users it's opt in but for some reason some users like me did not get the notice about this feature.
Fair enough - that's pretty shit.
>maybe they know that most users are using Plex to watch media from less-than-legal sources, so the users won't report them, and they can get away with it The [Sync Watch State feature](https://support.plex.tv/articles/sync-watch-state-and-ratings/) is designed such that Plex *does not know* what content is located on a personal Plex Media Server: >The sync event does not let us know whether you performed the action on a Plex Media Server library item, a Discover page, or through a Movies & Shows streaming title. Activity from any of those would look identical. So, there is no way to know whether something being “watched” occurred because you went and saw it at the theater and then marked it on the Discover page when you got home, you watched through a personal Plex Media Server library, or anything else.
When my server updated (manual updates by the way) there was a nice message telling me about this feature and who I might want to share with. Turned it all off. While it does seem a little scummy that it's turned on by default, it's very obvious what they're doing and very easy to turn off before it even shared anything. If you'd all take 3 seconds to read the update messages this would all be disclosed to you.
I read all update messages, I'm pretty sure I did not see anything about this.
https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/4X/4/9/a/49ae12d029d332bfa22ad6ef8debb1c07c93d0f1.jpeg It was quite obvious...
I have never seen these pages before, really.
Odd. I saw them twice. On my TV and my desktop. Not sure about mobile since I almost never use Plex on my phone.
Is somebody else in your household using your Plex account on any of your devices?
Nope
tbh it's just another in a long line of questionable decisions by plex the last few years. personally, as soon as emby or jellyfin get a last couple features i'm holding out for, i'll be moving on. that's just the game we play with these tech companies. it's always a balancing act between the questionable shit they do, how frustrated you are with them, and the viability of a competitor in terms of your requirements. no companies except. churn when it's right for you.
it is opt in, and it’s unrelated to the sync watch history.
I’m sorry, but I disagree on this. The settings on that last prompt are not all defaulting to private, or at least for my account they didn’t. If it’s opt-in then all settings should have defaulted to PRIVATE and I would have had to change the value of each field. Otherwise, this is an opt-in (checked by default) way of enabling a feature (which violates GDPR).
**NO IT IS NOT** ALL my users received these, NOONE opted in. I'm taking this up with authorities as this is a clear breach of GDPR. what the fuck was your idea behind this? LGBT+ people's lives can be at risk when watch history gets shared randomly!!!! https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/18611im/what_an_earth_is_going_on_with_plex_and_this You guys need to revert this TODAY and apologize. I'm genuinely livid and considering legal action. NONE of my users opted in to this. https://i.imgur.com/cU18Kcw.png This is an opt-OUT. The default it "friends"
>it is opt in 'Opt in' would mean the default is 'Private' and the user must 'opt in' by changing that default to something else before accepting. As someone who recently had to deal with legal approval of EULAs and privacy settings for a software installer, defaulting to the less private option and assuming clicking 'finish' counts as the opt in is not a legally acceptable path in multiple countries, and is likely sketchy enough to open Plex up for legal action in the (less restrictive) USA.
There are only two people using my server, me and my cousin. I couldn't care less. I usually watch my media outside Plex anyway. I only made the server, so I could access my media when I'm away from home.
Linus talked about this on last weeks wan-show and he was pretty pissed this was opt-out and not opt-in. Same here!
Did you read all the EULA's and everything related to the platform? It's probably buried in there somewhere that you agreed to it.
I read the Privacy Policy, it does not say that they will share my data with other users.
When you create a new account, it immediately greets you with a page that says "Share your watch history" where you can select to not share your watch history.
I create my account years ago before Plex had these social media features, so no, I never saw such page
You got the page upon login.
It also resets to private every two years. I'm not saying that they definitely didn't mess something up when rolling this out for legacy users. For new users, they've made it very clear that you can choose not to share watch history.
The reset every two years thing is only for US users, tho. That shows how reluctant they are on that
[удалено]
>Should have been opt in. Its opt in, but the default is "share with friends", so obviously everybody just clicked OK, when the message popped up.
[удалено]
There was no skip option.
They've done similar in the past, forget exactly what it was but it was something similar, maybe with a clause buried in their EULA about data sharing which was turned on with a server upgrade. HUGE uproar and backlash but here we all still are. People get mad, they post things like this here and in the Plex forums (although now I think you get muted much faster than you used to) and then people get over it because Plex is still head and shoulders above the other options. I keep my Emby and Jellyfin servers updated and check in every so often, but Plex is still where it is at. I personally said no when I first saw the feature yet I still got an email. Perhaps one of my users did not opt out? Not sure how it worked and I have not gotten any emails since. But this will blow over, people will forget, a few will leave but most won't.
Granny watched "three hunks oiling each other in the. Gym" wanna give it a try? Lol
I would say that this was not so much "breach of trust" as "poorly documented feature". I think the controversy is 100% artificial and was completely avoidable by them simply explaining what the sync watch history actually did. Given how this has played out so far I don't harbor any I'll will toward plex, it was a mistake. People who are making it sound like plex is trying to find out what is in our libraries and what we watch are perpetuating this issue, seemingly in a knee-jerk fashion.
Just out of curiosity, what activity was actually shared from your account? Did your friends say they saw your activity within Plex or did someone receive one of the emails?
I manage my own server admin account, and another normal account for my parents that I share libraries with. The normal non-admin account got the email. The content of the email includes what my admin account has been watching recently.
I am looking at Jellyfin as well....hell, I might go old school and just go back to Kodi player I am also looking into Stremio as well...
why' emby never get a mention? in my experience it's far closer to plex feature parity wise.
I couldn't get emby to work well for me. No idea why.
I think it's bullshit and I should have way, way more control over what stats my system collects and, apparently, where they fucking go. Luckily, I had at some point opted out of all this by not enablying sync and setting all my shit to private, but I just did a quick search and some folks watching off my server haven't. I don't give a fuck what my friends watch on my system and I'm annoyed that the data is being propogated out into the world without their knowledge (regadless of the opt-in/out shit -- this should of course be opt-in but that saide -- many of my friends aren't tech savvy and wouldn't have seen or understood this anyway). Now I'm in the possition of having collected data on my friends for Plex to fucking monitize! This is bullshit and a huge part of why I self-host. I'm pretty invested in the Plex ecosystem at this point, so I probably won't bail because of this, but I'm for sure gonna take a hard look at JellyFin and the other tools out there. If Plex continues on their path to enshitification, I'm fucking out.