How much does Plex know about you?

Published on Friday, February 9th 2018 at 22:35
Last updated on Friday, February 9th 2018 at 22:35

Plex’s Privacy Policy has changed, and the new one has been applied on September 26th, 2017.

The changes might seem small bits of uninteresting information - let’s be honest: how many of us do not immediately trash emails from big companies (PayPal, Amazon, etc.) that throw tens of legalese pages at us rattling on about “important legal changes to their policies”? We might tend to trust them and carry on with our lives unless something is evidently and horribly wrong with such changes - but they actually are quite an hassle for privacy-aware users.

The update came out first as a statement issued by Plex itself, and was then updated and clarified after the community enraged. > Hi, Reddit’s Pitchfork emporium!

After having taken a look at both updates (good luck finding them via search engines or browsing Plex’s website, they’ve been well hidden…) and the whole new Policy itself, my take is that mainly one thing has changed: Plex will now collect metadata as a standard practice, and you can’t radically opt-out of it anymore. Said metadata could then be shared with third parties and Plex partners in general without you having any control on it.

That’s bad. Really bad.

Quick! Where can I manage my partial opt-out?

It’s well hidden! Scroll down and uncheck the only checkbox, that really is all you can do at the moment: https://www.plex.tv/about/privacy-legal/privacy-preferences/#opd

Now, don’t take me wrong: Plex is a free platform - Plex Pass is a thing, but it’s not strictly necessary to use most features - and we all know that in a free platform the product is the user itself. I’m fine with that, but I’m not fine with sneaking in the introduction of additional metrics and removal of voluntary opt-out, all in one go. I’m not informed on U.S. laws regarding privacy and data collection, but at least in Europe we should be protected by the GDPR and have additional rights, among which the one to be forgotten:

A “right to be forgotten”: When an individual no longer wants her/his data to be processed, and provided that there are no legitimate grounds for retaining it, the data will be deleted. This is about protecting the privacy of individuals, not about erasing past events or restricting freedom of the press.

EU Memoeuropa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-15-6385_en.htm

To me this looks like it implies the user should have a way to deny his/her consent at any moment, and as of today Plex only offers a really small portion of this possibility. As soon as the aforementioned statements came up on Plex’s website, I wrote their legal department an email expressing my remarks and also asking for a copy of my data, exercising my right to obtain a copy of them. A few weeks later, quite surprisingly I must admit, I received an email with a 293KB ZIP archive attachment that decompressed as a bunch of text files, totaling a “whopping” 7.1MB of data. Is that really all you got on me, Plex? I’ll take your word for it.

«Enough rambling already!» - I hear you, I hear you. Just have these last bits of informations before digging into the datadump:

The raw data from Plex was just a bunch of JSON objects scattered in a couple of files. Everything has been made parseable (JSON structure redone), SQL tables definitions have been generated, data has been imported in MySQL in the said tables, exported in JSON & YAML and completely restructured.
Most fields in the following YAML document have lists inside them: those are all the possible values that the field assumed in the dataset.
The main objects (or top level keys, whatever you want to call them) represent the names of the files that I received from Plex. Each one was handled separately and empty files have been skipped.
This data was collected in a period during which I used two OnePlus smartphones, a Raspberry Pi with Rasplex, a mix of laptop OSs, smart TVs, and additional (and external) services for Plex such as Ombi, CouchPotato, PlexPy and, lately, Tautulli.
Being this a dump of my very personal data, many details have been redacted. The format of the redaction itself should be intuitive.
The following is valid YAML, you can import it in your favorite scripting language - or any other data-crunching contraption that you can make up - and carve really nice stats from it.

And now here’s the sweet, raw data that you’ve been waiting for!

plex_analysis

bigquery_events_client:
  list_context_device_device:
    - "Linux"
    - "PlayStation 4"
    - "ONEPLUS A3003"
    - "Android"
  list_context_device_layout:
    - "desktop"
    - "tv"
    - "Mobile"
  list_context_device_platform:
    - "Chrome"
    - "WebMAF"
    - "Firefox"
    - "Android"
  list_context_device_platformVersion:
    - "61.0"
    - "62.0"
    - "01.40"
    - "57.0"
    - "7.1.2"
    - "63.0"
  list_context_device_product:
    - "Plex Web"
    - "Plex for PlayStation 4"
    - "Plex for Android (Mobile)"
  list_context_device_screenResolution:
    - "1600x775,1600x900"
    - "1600x780,1600x900"
    - "1280x720"
    - "1920x987,1920x1080"
    - "1600x780,1920x1080"
    - "1600x899,1600x900"
    - "NULL"
    - "980x1525,360x640"
    - "1920x960,1920x1080"
    - "1600x774,1600x900"
  list_context_device_version:
    - "3.20.7"
    - "3.20.7"
    - "3.23.1"
    - "3.13.1"
    - "3.31.1"
    - "6.9.0.2683"
    - "3.26.2"
  list_context_ip:
    - "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx"
    - ...
  list_context_location_city:  # English name of current City
    - "CCCCCCCCC"
    - ...
  list_context_location_country: "CC"  # Two-letters country code
  list_context_location_lat:
    - LL.LL
    - ...
  list_context_location_lon:
    - MM.MM
    - ...
  list_context_location_region:  # Numbers between 10 and 20
    - NN
    - ...
  list_context_userAgent:
    - "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/61.0.3163.100 Safari/537.36"
    - "Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 7.1.2; ONEPLUS A3003 Build/NZH54D) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/62.0.3202.52 Mobile Safari/537.36"
    - "okhttp/2.6.0"
    - "Mozilla/5.0 (PlayStation 4) AppleWebKit/531.3 (KHTML, like Gecko) SCEE/1.0 Nuanti/2.0"
    - ...
  list_deviceIdentifier:  # UIDs with different formats and lengths, no evident pattern
    - "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
    - "YYYYYYYYYY"
    - "ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ"
    - "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-com-plexapp-android"
    - "BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB"
    - "CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC"
    - "DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD"
  list_event:
    - "client:start"
    - "client:switchuser"
    - "client:shutdown"
  list_interaction:
    - "True"
    - "False"
  list_timestamp_value:
    - "2017-10-11 23:35:43"
    - ...
    - "2017-12-08 23:56:50"
  list_userId: NNNNNNN
#
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
bigquery_events_device:
  context_device_device:
    - "ONEPLUS A3003"
    - "PC"
    - "Linux"
    - "Samsung TV"
    - "RaspberryPi"
    - "Android"
    - "NULL"
    - "Windows"
    - "A0001"
    - "PlayStation 4"
    - "Sony (PlayStation 4 01.40)"
    - "OnePlus 3"
  context_device_model:
    - "OnePlus3"
    - "x86_64"
    - "hosted"
    - "NULL"
    - "RaspberryPi"
    - "A0001"
    - "Linux"
  context_device_platform:
    - "Android"
    - "Linux"
    - "Chrome"
    - "Samsung"
    - "Plex Home Theater"
    - "NULL"
    - "Firefox"
    - "WebMAF"
    - "Mystery 4"
  context_device_platform_version:
    - "7.1.2"
    - "4.4.14-200.fc22.x86_64 (#1 SMP Fri Jun 24 21:19:33 UTC 2016)"
    - "4.13.8-2-pve (#1 SMP PVE 4.13.8-28 (Wed, 29 Nov 2017 09:49:35 +0100))"
    - "6.0.1"
    - "63.0"
    - "47.0"
  context_device_product:
    - "Plex for Android"
    - "Plex Media Server"
    - "Plex Web"
    - "Plex for Samsung"
    - "Plex Home Theater"
    - "Plex SSO"
    - "Plex for PlayStation 4"
    - "Plex TV"
    - "Plex Auth App"
  context_device_vendor:
    - "OnePlus"
    - "ubuntu"
    - "NULL"
    - "Linux"
    - "RaspberryPi"
    - "Windows"
  context_device_version:
    - "6.9.0.2683"
    - "1.9.7.4460-a39b25852"
    - "6.5.3.2115"
    - "3.14.1"
    - "1.8.1.4139-c789b3fbb"
    - "5.8.0.475"
    - ...
  context_ip:
    - "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx"
    - ...
  context_location_city:  # English name of current City
    - "CCCCCCCCC"
    - ...
  context_location_country:  # Two-letters country codes
    - "CC"
    - ...
  context_location_lat:
    - LL.LL
    - ...
  context_location_lon:
    - MM.MM
    - ...
  context_location_region:  # Numbers between 10 and 20, plus alphanumerical two-chars strings
    - NN
    - AB
    - CN
    - ...
  device_identifier:
    - "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-com-plexapp-android"
    - "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
    - "YYYYYYYYYY"
    - "ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ"
    - "BBBBBBBB-CCCC-DDDD-EEEE-FFFFFFFFFFFF"
  event:
    - "device:seen"
    - "device:linked"
  interaction: 1
  timestamp_value:
    - "2017-12-31 10:00:03"
    - ...
    - "2016-01-01 10:00:02"
  user_id: NNNNNNN
#
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
bigquery_events_other:
  context_device_device:
    - "PC"
    - "NULL"
  context_device_model:
    - "x86_64"
    - "NULL"
  context_device_platform:
    - "Linux"
    - "NULL"
  context_device_platform_version:  #  Plex Server runs in a Proxmox LXC container, hence the '-pve' kernel
    - "4.10.17-3-pve (#1 SMP PVE 4.10.17-21 (Thu, 31 Aug 2017 14:57:17 +0200))"
    - "NULL"
    - "4.13.8-2-pve (#1 SMP PVE 4.13.8-28 (Wed, 29 Nov 2017 09:49:35 +0100))"
  context_device_product:
    - "Plex Media Server"
    - "plex.tv"
  context_device_vendor:
    - "ubuntu"
    - "NULL"
  context_device_version:
    - "1.9.4.4325-1bf240a65"
    - "1.10.0.4523-648bc61d4"
    - "NULL"
    - ...
  context_ip:
    - "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx"
    - "NULL"
    - ...
  context_location_city:  # English name of current City
    - "CCCCCCCCCC"
    - "NULL"
    - ...
  context_location_country:  # Two-letters country code
    - "CC"
    - "NULL"
  context_location_lat:
    - LL.LL
    - "NULL"
    - ...
  context_location_lon:
    - MM.MM
    - "NULL"
    - ...
  context_location_region:  # Numbers between 10 and 20
    - NN
    - "NULL"
    - ...
  context_user_agent:
    - "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/47.0.2526.106 Safari/537.36"
    - "NULL"
  device_identifier:
    - "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
    - "NULL"
  event:
    - "server:startup"
    - "server:shared"
    - "server:published"
    - "server:unpublished"
    - "library:created"
  interaction:
    - 0
    - 1
  timestamp_value:
    - "2017-10-11 23:34:44.000"
    - ...
    - "2017-12-08 17:12:07.000"
  user_id: NNNNNNN
#
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
bigquery_events_playback:
  context_device_device:
    - "PC"
    - "PlayStation 4"
    - "Linux"
    - "ONEPLUS A3003"
  context_device_model:
    - "x86_64"
    - "NULL"
    - "OnePlus3"
  context_device_platform:
    - "Linux"
    - "WebMAF"
    - "Chrome"
    - "Android"
    - "Firefox"
  context_device_platform_version:
    - "4.10.17-3-pve (#1 SMP PVE 4.10.17-21 (Thu, 31 Aug 2017 14:57:17 +0200))"
    - "01.40"
    - "62.0"
    - "7.1.2"
    - "57.0"
    - "4.13.8-2-pve (#1 SMP PVE 4.13.8-28 (Wed, 29 Nov 2017 09:49:35 +0100))"
    - "61.0"
  context_device_product:
    - "Plex Media Server"
    - "Plex for PlayStation 4"
    - "Plex Web"
    - "Plex for Android (Mobile)"
  context_device_vendor:
    - "ubuntu"
    - "NULL"
    - "OnePlus"
  context_device_version:
    - "1.9.6.4429-23901a099"
    - "3.13.1"
    - "6.9.0.2683"
    - "3.20.7"
    - "3.31.1"
    - "1.10.0.4523-648bc61d4"
    -  ...
  context_ip:
    - "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx"
    - ...
  context_location_city:  # English name of current City
    - "CCCCCCCCCC"
    - ...
  context_location_country: "CC"  # Two-letters country code
  context_location_lat:
    - LL.LL
    - ...
  context_location_lon:
    - MM.MM
    - ...
  context_location_region:  # Numbers between 10 and 20
    - NN
    - ...
  context_user_agent:
    - "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/47.0.2526.106 Safari/537.36"
    - ...
  device_identifier:
    - "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
    - "YYYYYYYYYY"
    - "ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ"
    - "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-com-plexapp-android"
    - ...
  event:
    - "playback:server:itemstart"
    - "playback:server:itemend"
    - "playback:sessionend"
    - "playback:itemstart"
    - "playback:itemend"
    - "playback:itemrestart"
    - "playback:failure"
  interaction:
    - 0
    - 1
  properties_audio_codec:
    - ""
    - "NULL"
    - "aac"
    - "ac3"
    - "dca"
    - "mp3"
  properties_audio_decision:
    - "direct"
    - "transcode"
    - "NULL"
    - "copy"
    - ""
  properties_bitrate:
    - 0
    - "NULL"
    - 20
    - ...
    - 13820
  properties_connection_type:
    - "remote"
    - "local"
    - "relayed"
  properties_container:
    - ""
    - "mp4"
    - "NULL"
    - "mkv"
    - "avi"
    - "mpegts"
    - "mp3"
    - "matroska"
  properties_playback_time:
    - 0
    - "NULL"
    - 60
    - ...
    - 6888600
  properties_protocol:
    - ""
    - "dash"
    - "NULL"
    - "hls"
    - "http"
  properties_subtitle_decision:
    - ""
    - "transcode"
    - "NULL"
    - "burn"
    - "ignore"
  properties_type:
    - "episode"
    - "NULL"
    - "track"
    - "movie"
    - "clip"
  properties_video_codec:
    - ""
    - "NULL"
    - "h264"
    - "mpeg4"
    - "hevc"
  properties_video_decision:
    - "direct"
    - "transcode"
    - "NULL"
    - "copy"
    - ""
  timestamp_value:
    - "2017-11-14 17:48:50.000"
    - ...
    - "2017-02-18 05:00:13"
  user_id: NNNNNNN
#
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
bigquery_events_unrecognized:
  context_device_platform:
    - "Linux"
    - "NULL"
    - "PlayStation 4"
    - "Android"
  context_device_platform_version:
    - "4.4.35-1-pve"
    - "4.4.67-1-pve"
    - "NULL"
    - "7.1.2"
  context_device_product:
    - "PlexPy"
    - "Ombi"
    - "NULL"
    - "Couchpotato Notifier"
    - "Plex for Smart TV"
    - "Plex for Android (Mobile)"
  context_device_version:
    - "1.4.16"
    - "2.2.1678"
    - "NULL"
    - "1.0"
    - "6.9.0.2683"
  context_ip:
    - "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx"
    - ...
  context_location_city:  # English name of current City
    - "CCCCCCCCCC"
    - ...
  context_location_country: "CC"  # Two-letters country code
  context_location_lat:
    - LL.LL
    - ...
  context_location_lon:
    - MM.MM
    - ...
  context_location_region:  # Numbers between 10 and 20
    - NN
    - ...
  device_identifier:
    - "AAAAAAAA-BBBB-CCCC-DDDD-EEEEEEEEEEEE"
    - "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
    - "Ombi2.2.1678"
    - "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX-com-plexapp-android"
  event:
    - "device:seen"
    - "device:linked"
    - "client:start"
    - "client:shutdown"
    - "playback:sessionend"
    - "playback:itemend"
    - "playback:itemstart"
  interaction:
    - 1
    - 0
  timestamp_value:
    - "2017-01-16 09:00:13"
    - ...
    - "2017-12-18 02:00:59"
  user_id: NNNNNNN
#
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
bigquery_user_facts:
  email: "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA@BBBBBBBB.CCC"
  first_library_added_at_value: "2017-11-01 12:14:13.000"
  first_playback_at_value: "2015-12-21 22:35:01.933"
  first_streamed_at_value: "2015-12-21 22:35:01.933"
  has_big_screen_client: 1
  has_client: 1
  has_mobile_client: 1
  id: NNNNNNN
  last_playback_at_value: "2016-12-12 22:53:00.643"
  last_seen_at_value: "2017-12-15 00:24:52.620"
  last_streamed_at_value: "2016-12-12 22:53:00.643"
  location_city: "CCCCCCCCCC"  # English name of current City
  location_country: "CC"  # Two-letters country code
  location_lat: LL.LL
  location_lon: MM.MM
  location_region: NN  # Number between 10 and 20
  mailing_list_status: "active"
  num_libraries: 6
  num_servers: 1
  num_shared_servers: 0
  products_episode_playbacks:
    - 1
    - 209
    - 12
    - 11
  products_first_playback_at_value: "2016-02-20 17:47:04.039"
  products_first_seen_at_value: "2015-12-15 23:04:07.000"
  products_last_playback_at_value: "2016-02-20 17:47:04.039"
  products_last_seen_at_value:
    - "2017-12-14 17:33:35.000"
    - ...
    - "2017-09-16 19:01:44.000"
  products_movie_playbacks:
    - "NULL"
    - 65
    - 2
    - 5
  products_name:
    - "Android"
    - "PHT"
    - "Web"
    - "HTML5"
    - "Samsung"
  registered_at_value: "2015-08-24 13:34:23.000"
  subscription_active: 0
  title: "UUUUUUUUUUUU"  # My username
  uuid: "UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU"
#
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
myplex_codec_downloads:
  codec_id:
    - 91
    - 117
    - 279
    - 74
    - 262
    - 287
    - 171
    - 169
    - 259
  created_at:
    - "2016-07-01T12:40:58.000Z"
    - ...
    - "2016-11-21T19:03:57.000Z"
  id:
    - 16NNNNN
    - ...
    - 10NNNNNN
  installation_identifier: "AAAAAAAA-BBBB-CCCC-DDDD-EEEEEEEEEEEE"
  ip:
    - "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx"
    - ...
  oldest_previous_version: "legacy"
  user_id: NNNNNNN
#
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
myplex_devices:
  client_identifier:
    - "XXXXXXXXXX"
    - "YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY-com-plexapp-android"
    - "BBBBBBBB-CCCC-DDDD-EEEE-FFFFFFFFFFFF"
    - "ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ"
    - "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
    - "Ombi2.2.1678"
  created_at:
    - "2015-10-03T11:10:19.000Z"
    - ...
    - "2017-12-08T23:03:11.000Z"
  device:
    - "PlayStation 4"
    - "ONEPLUS A3003"
    - "RaspberryPi"
    - "PC"
    - "NULL"
    - "Linux"
    - "Samsung TV"
    - "Android"
  id:
    - 36NNNNNN
    - ...
    - 17NNNNNNN
  last_seen_at:
    - "2017-11-19T15:02:51.000Z"
    - "NULL"
    - ...
  name:
    - "Plex for Sony (PlayStation 4 01.40)"
    - "OnePlus 3"
    - "RasPlex"
    - "Aperture Labs"
    - "NULL"
    - "Plex Web (Chrome)"
    - "PlexPy"
    - "TV @@@@@@@@@"  # TV model redacted
    - "Plex Web (Firefox)"
  platform:
    - "WebMAF"
    - "Android"
    - "Plex Home Theater"
    - "Linux"
    - "NULL"
    - "Chrome"
    - "Samsung"
    - "Firefox"
  platform_version:
    - "01.40"
    - "7.1.2"
    - "NULL"
    - "4.13.8-2-pve (#1 SMP PVE 4.13.8-28 (Wed, 29 Nov 2017 09:49:35 +0100))"
    - "62.0"
    - "4.4.67-1-pve"
    - "2.4.0"
    - "63.0"
    - "57.0"
  product:
    - "Plex for PlayStation 4"
    - "Plex for Android"
    - "Plex Home Theater"
    - "Plex Media Server"
    - "Couchpotato Notifier"
    - "Plex SSO"
    - "Plex Web"
    - "PlexPy"
    - "Plex for Samsung"
    - "Ombi"
  provides:
    - "client,player,pubsub-player"
    - "controller,sync-target"
    - "player,pubsub-player"
    - "server"
    - "NULL"
  public_address:
    - "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx"
    - ...
    - "NULL"
  screen_resolution:
    - "1280x720"
    - "1920x1080 (Mobile)"
    - "NULL"
    - "1920x960,1920x1080"
    - "1600x780,1600x900"
    - "980x1525,360x640"
    - "1600x899,1600x900"
  updated_at:
    - "2017-08-25T15:41:14.000Z"
    - ...
    - "2017-12-15T11:28:10.000Z"
  user_id: NNNNNNN
  version:
    - "3.13.1"
    - "6.10.2.2954"
    - "1.8.0.148-573b6d73"
    - "1.10.0.4523-648bc61d4"
    - "1.0"
    - "NULL"
    - "3.26.2"
    - "1.4.21"
    - "3.1.0 (3.8.0)"
    - "3.31.1"
    - "2.2.1678"
#
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
myplex_device_certificates:  # (has a single record)
  created_at: "2017-09-05T00:22:36.000Z"
  enabled: 1
  expires_at: "2018-09-05T00:22:36.000Z"
  https_required: 1
  id: NNNNNNNN
  updated_at: "2017-09-07T18:46:22.000Z"
#
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
myplex_device_connections:
  created_at:
    - "2017-12-15T03:02:06.000Z"
    - ...
  id:
    - NNNNNNNNNN
    - ...
  index: 0
  updated_at:
    - "2017-12-15T03:02:06.000Z"
    - ...
  uri:
    - "http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:46724"
    - "http://yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy:3005"
    - "http://zzz.zzz.zzz.zzz:32400"
    - "https://AAAA.BBBBBB.CCC:32400"
    - "https://DDDDDDD.ddns.net:63571"
#
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
myplex_device_usages:
  day:
    - "2016-03-04T23:00:00.000Z"
    - ...
    - "2017-11-18T23:00:00.000Z"
  device_id: NNNNNNNN
  id:
    - 60NNNNN
    - ...
    - 29NNNNNN
  user_id: NNNNNNN
#
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
myplex_friendships:
  created_at:
    - "2017-02-06T08:28:47.000Z"
    - ...
  friend_id:
    - NNNNNNNN
    - ...
  friendable_id: UUUUUUU  # My own user ID
  id:
    - 40NNNNN
    - ...
    - 54NNNNN
  pending: 0
  updated_at:
    - "2017-02-06T08:28:47.000Z"
    - ...
#
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
myplex_library_sections:
  agent:
    - "com.plexapp.agents.themoviedb"
    - "com.plexapp.agents.thetvdb"
    - "com.plexapp.agents.none"
  art:
    - "/:/resources/movie-fanart.jpg"
    - "/:/resources/show-fanart.jpg"
    - "/:/resources/artist-fanart.jpg"
  created_at:
    - "2017-01-14T07:47:41.000Z"
    - ...
  deleted_at:
    - "2017-01-15T14:13:09.000Z"
    - ...
  id:
    - 32NNNNNN
    - ...
    - 43NNNNNN
  key:  # Sequence of numbers from 1 to 13
    - 1
    - ...
    - 13
  language:  # Two-letter language codes, plus a reference to "xn" (?)
    - "LL"
    - ...
    - "xn"
  scanned_at:
    - "2017-01-14T14:08:12.000Z"
    - ...
  scanner:
    - "Plex Movie Scanner"
    - "Plex Series Scanner"
    - "Plex Music Scanner"
    - "Plex Video Files Scanner"
  server_id: SSSSSSS
  title:  # Names of my own libraries
    - "AAAAAA"
    - "BBBBBBBBBBB"
    - "CCCCCCCC"
    - "DDDDDDDD"
    - "EEEEEEEEE"
    - "FFFFFFFFF"
  type:
    - "movie"
    - "show"
    - "artist"
  updated_at:
    - "2017-01-14T14:08:10.000Z"
    - ...
  uuid:
    - "AAAAAAAA-BBBB-CCCC-DDDD-EEEEEEEEEEEE"
    - ...
#
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
myplex_profiles:  # (has a single record)
  auto_select_audio: 1
  auto_select_subtitle: 1
  created_at: "2015-08-24T11:34:23.000Z"
  default: 1
  default_audio_language: "LL"  # Two-letter language code
  default_subtitle_language: "LL"  # Two-letter language code
  email_only_auth: 0
  has_password: 1
  id: UUUUUUU
  opt_out_mask: 0
  updated_at: "2015-08-24T11:36:40.000Z"
  user_id: UUUUUUU  # My own user ID
#
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
myplex_servers:  # (has a single record)
  address: "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx"
  created_at: "2017-01-14T07:47:19.000Z"
  extra_data: "---\n:relay: true\n:relay_protocols: ssh\n"  # Why is SSH listed?
  id: NNNNNNN
  last_checkin_at: "2017-12-14T16:12:05.000Z"
  machine_identifier: "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
  name: "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"  # Custom name of my Plex Server
  port: PPPPP
  scheme: "http"
  synced: 0
  updated_at: "2017-12-14T16:12:05.000Z"
  user_id: UUUUUUU  # My own user ID
  version: "1.10.0.4523-648bc61d4"
#
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
myplex_users:
  birthday: "YYYY-MM-DDTXX:XX:XX.XXXX"  # Redacted
  confirmation_sent_at: "2015-XX-XXTXX:XX:XX.XXXX"  # Redacted
  confirmed_at: "2015-XX-XXTXX:XX:XX.XXXX"  # Redacted
  created_at: "2015-XX-XXTXX:XX:XX.XXXX"  # Redacted
  current_sign_in_at: "2017-11-XXTXX:XX:XX.XXXX"  # Redacted
  current_sign_in_ip: "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx"
  email: "AAAAAAAAAAAAAA@BBBBBB.CCCC"
  failed_attempts: 0
  forum_id: 0
  id: UUUUUUU # My own user ID
  last_sign_in_at: "2017-09-XXTXX:XX:XX.XXXX"  # Redacted
  last_sign_in_ip: "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx"
  locale: "LL"  # Two-letter language code
  mailing_list_status: "active"
  remember_created_at: "2017-12-XXTXX:XX:XX.XXXX"  # Redacted
  restricted: 0
  roles_mask: 0
  sign_in_count: 254
  timezone: "TTTTTTTT"  # Timezone in city-only format
  updated_at: "2017-12-XXTXX:XX:XX.XXXX"  # Redacted
  username: "UUUUUUUUUUU"  # My username

Conclusion: Plex effectively picks up everything that it says it’s collecting… And that’s quite a bunch of data.

Those are not only harmless details such as available screen resolutions and most used codecs, but also things that I bet you’d rather keep private: your latitude and longitude whenever you open a Plex app or stream something, for example. You might say: “Hey, those coordinates only have one decimal point! Those can’t be accurate.” Well, they are enough to locate you in a few thousand km² or in the vicinity of a city - match them with the recorded IP and there you have it, a relatively good approximation of your position.

An interesting side note, though: some fields seem to be “nullable”: under which conditions are they reported as NULL? Further analysis could be done to determine if there’s the theoretical possibility to inject garbage data into the collection stream.

It looks like nobody is escaping the new metadata-driven business model, not even paid platforms. Ignored Do Not Track requests, onboxious cookie banners, tracking pixels… Things are going south for privacy. They are going down fast, too.

/dev/urandom

How much does Plex know about you?

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How much does Plex know about you?

Found this article useful? Crypto makes for an excellent tip!

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