Last week Plex upset a large portion of its userbase by announcing a change to its privacy policy. The change, which was due to take effect in late September, meant that it would not be possible to opt out of data collection.
Last week Plex upset a large portion of its userbase by announcing a change to its privacy policy. The change, which was due to take effect in late September, meant that it would not be possible to opt out of data collection.
After a serious backlash, the company has changed it mind, backtracking on the privacy policy update, saying that it recognized the concerns raised by users. The company insists that it was not trying to sneak the policy change by users and that it had no intention of selling data. Importantly, however, users are still going to be able to opt of playback data collection if they want.
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The response in the Plex forums is mixed. For some users it seems that the reversal of decision is too little too late, but others have been placated by the move. Plex tries to explain that there are various pieces of data that have to be collected in order for the service to function properly (such as checking for the existence of a Plex Pass subscription, checking for updates, and so one) .
Plex CEO Keith Valory says that to providing an opt-out option “gives a false sense of privacy and feels disingenuous on our part. That is, even if you opted out, there is still a bunch of data we are collecting that we tried to call out as exceptions.” This is the reason for the initial change that caused so much controversy, but he acknowledges that data tracking would, technically, make it possible to work out what media files were in users’ libraries. To this he says:
But what people are really interested in is what is now being done. Valory has written a post explaining about the change of heart about the policy change and the new changes that will now be implemented:
The latest update will be implemented “over the next few days, ” but is it enough to keep you happy?
