#HeadsUp if you have a #Plex Pass, they’re about to increase the cost A LOT – in #Australia, the annual subscription is increasing from AUD$49 to $109 (!!)

a MUCH better option (if you can afford it) is to upgrade to the lifetime pass, which is currently AUD$160 – less than 2 years at the new price & ~3 years at the old price. so long as Plex stays viable for at least 2-3 more years, this is the best option, price-wise

BUT these prices are only available until April 28 when the new pricing comes into effect. at that time, the lifetime pass also increases DRAMATICALLY to USD$250, which will be ~AUD$400 (!!)

so if you’re gonna stick with Plex, NOW is the time to upgrade – but definitely before April 28 (US time, I assume, so best to upgrade by April 25ish to be sure)

current subscriptions are pro-rated so you won’t be paying twice for the remainder of your subscription

info about the changes are on the Plex blog at https://www.plex.tv/blog/important-2025-plex-updates/

oh, and they’re also changing their privacy policy & terms of service – including changes to what data they will share or sell I highly recommend you review the changed versions:

#privacy policy (AU)
https://www.plex.tv/en-au/about/privacy-legal/

terms of service (AU)
https://www.plex.tv/en-au/about/privacy-legal/plex-terms-of-service/

you can update some of your privacy & data sharing / selling choices (where they permit) in your account settings, but a lot of the preferences are scattered across their website in a really shitty way & they’re presented inconsistently (some you have to check to opt out, some you have to uncheck to opt out)

you’ll need to log into your Plex account to see and check / uncheck / leave unchecked the checkboxes shown in each of these areas

opt-out choices

https://www.plex.tv/en-au/vendors-us/

they use a dark pattern for the first option – make sure you UNcheck (or leave unchecked) the one labelled “If this box is checked, then Plex may sell your personal data as described in the Privacy Policy. If this box is unchecked, then you are opted-out of this sale.”

the second checkbox labelled “All No” is one you’ll (probably) want to check – it’s the one below the text that reads, “Click “All No” if you want to opt-out of sharing personal information with any Vendor for each specific purpose or feature”

limit what activity data is sent from your Plex server
UNcheck (or leave unchecked) this checkbox labeled “Send playback data to Plex”

https://www.plex.tv/en-au/about/privacy-legal/#you-have-the-right-to-limit-what-activity-data-is-sent-from-your-plex-media-server

also take a look through your Plex server settings for other privacy & data settings like what’s visible to others from your Plex profile

https://app.plex.tv/desktop/#!/settings/account

under “ACCOUNT VISIBILITY & ACTIVITY SHARING” you can “Manage which of your Plex activities are viewable by your friends on Plex.” - hit edit to review / change these settings (I set everything to private except for “Account Visibility”, which I set to “Friends Only” )

review your privacy settings (takes you to the pages mentioned above that live outside your account but can only be set there )
https://app.plex.tv/desktop/#!/settings/privacy

server-specific options – located in the settings menu under > General

the url will be in the form of
https://app.plex.tv/desktop/#!/settings/server//settings/general

review the following options – personally, I uncheck them all:

• Send crash reports to Plex
• Push Notifications (post attention to the helptext here, “Note: Push notifications are delivered using Plex services. They're associated with your account, and some of them may contain information about the contents of your library.”
• Enable Plex Media Server debug logging
• Enable Plex Media Server verbose logging

website cookies
you can reject optional cookies at
https://www.plex.tv/en-au/

there might be some other settings spread around – either inside your account or server settings, or on the Plex website – so have a good look around

sadly, like so many other things we use these days, we’re in the era of having to treat the companies that provide the services & products we ̶b̶u̶y̶ ̶ rent from them (even physical ones) as hostile providers

not only are we the product if we’re not paying for the service, usually even when we are paying for things we (well, our data & metadata) are still the product

#PlexPass
#DarkPatterns
#HostileProviders