Media streamer Plex has raised new capital. The company, which began as a media organization startup, has morphed over the years to become a one-stop shop
I hope this doesn’t mean they are on the slippery slope of selling user data, thoughts?
“One of the things we’ve already started to prove in 2023 is that we can absolutely monetize some of that data…in a very privacy-friendly way. There’s no personally identifiable information being used,” Valroy said. “We already proved we could make money on that this year, so, in 2024, we’re putting more wood behind that arrow. And arguably, even though our current business is already growing 30%-40% per year, that could dwarf it in two to three years. That is a really big market opportunity,” he added.
Sounds like they already have, on that note, for me it no longer matters if they are or aren’t as long as they put dev time into features that’ll actually create value for me as well.
That makes me nervous. We keep seeing evidence, again and again, that “anonymized” data is actually pretty easy to de-anonymize if you have enough of it. So I’m really not a fan of companies selling “anonymized” user data unless they transparently specify EXACTLY what data they’re selling.
I’ll stick with Plex for now because it’s so easy for others to use, but the moment I smell smoke, I’m heading for the door. I’ve already got Jellyfin installed and connected to my library, I just haven’t bothered to set up a reverse proxy for remote access yet.
Sounds like they already have, on that note, for me it no longer matters if they are or aren’t as long as they put dev time into features that’ll actually create value for me as well.
That makes me nervous. We keep seeing evidence, again and again, that “anonymized” data is actually pretty easy to de-anonymize if you have enough of it. So I’m really not a fan of companies selling “anonymized” user data unless they transparently specify EXACTLY what data they’re selling.
I’ll stick with Plex for now because it’s so easy for others to use, but the moment I smell smoke, I’m heading for the door. I’ve already got Jellyfin installed and connected to my library, I just haven’t bothered to set up a reverse proxy for remote access yet.