This is not Microsoft. I haven’t updated my plex software in over six months and it runs fine. Still, yes, I would expect updates to any software I purchase as new patches are needed for OS updates, etc. That shouldn’t be more than two updates a year for a given OS - if at all.

Selling a product, generating revenue, using revenue to improve products or create new products is how we used to run businesses.

If they’re unable to maintain software updates with the revenue they get, then they should discontinue support of less popular products.

As I’ve stated on the plex forum, plex is no longer a media management and consumption platform. It’s a video on demand service. That’s their prerogative and that’s fine. The issue is that they’re discontinuing a product that people have purchased and use on a regular basis. I paid money for a product and that product can no longer be used if I change the device I use that product on. They should have left the existing product alone and released something wholly new.

I bought a media management and consumption platform running on my own server using my own clients. For what reason do I need a relay service to watch content in my house on my server?

So what is the move for them?

Plex has a two-pronged VOD service. They have ad-supported “live television” and they have content to rent.

I don’t know if that’s enough to sustain them but I don’t really care. I’ve been a PlexPass owner for over ten years. I have only asked that they resolve bugs and made requests for things like proper organization of classical music (which they’ve explicitly stated they will not consider).

You do bring to light something I hadn’t considered; that they see Plex as a business model. From my perspective, I want to buy a fully developed product with the expectation of bug fixes and security patches etc over time. I genuinely can not think of a single thing the developers have added to the service that I’ve used in the past ten years.

So, what kind of business model charges money to do things that don’t have an apparent impact on the user experience?

Plex has been one of my most used applications in the past decade. However, it has its limitations and they are actively imposing more limitations on the experience in favor of “a sustainable business model”.

The issue is that their sustainable business model is interrupting the users’ sustained use of a platform they’ve already paid for. I’ve had to go through all of my devices and disable all auto-updates to ensure I do not get the “New Plex Experience”.

What we should be asking is why “selling a product” is no longer a business model.

Rich people don’t care about their privacy as much as they have their own IT department to do the work for them (source: I’ve been their IT department).

Their devices are just as secure as you would imagine any high profile CEO. Their home networks can cost up to $100k and are super secure with constant monitoring. They all have “normal” devices but they’ll usually have a VPN tunnel.

But, stuff like their Facebook logins, etc they’re still pretty bad with passwords, from my experience. I’d say less than percent of the people I’ve worked with have asked serious questions about their cyber security.

I live in a building where these contactless and cashless washing / drying units are provided for residents to clean their clothes.

Thanks. Hadn’t thought that far ahead.

Above these

Another longtime user here. If you haven’t already, you might want to disable autoupdates on all your devices. The “new experience” is not without its controversies.

…the company had crafted a pitch deck for advertisers bragging that it could exploit “moments of psychological vulnerability” in its users by targeting terms like “worthless,” “insecure,” “stressed,” “defeated,” “anxious,” “stupid,” “useless,” and “like a failure.”

As much as there’s an opportunity for selling a product, there’s an opportunity for extending support. Maybe there’s a sliver of a silver lining in that this surveillance could be used for good. It’s disheartening though that of course this will never happen.

I mean, if you wanted to be the good guy, you’d develop AI chat bots that could reach out to people seemingly in distress.

I think we’re well past people becoming apathetic to privacy concerns. Either they’re ignorant or they prefer the advantages.

You, along with everyone else sharing this soapbox, aren’t convincing anyone that their data privacy is a concern. Your example about using private communications against someone is becoming increasingly valid but the vast majority of people are going to ignore this until it’s too late. Maybe not even then.

If you haven’t heard about human beings before, they’re a species that rarely shows concern for their immediate future (never mind long term). If and when they do, they point at and blame the people whom they’ve elected to ensure pending catastrophic events don’t impede upon their freedom to be stupid.

Our reality is the frog in the pot of water. Things are happening at such a slow pace that we accept the incremental changes despite their known ramifications. Before you know it, the water is at a rolling boil but we’ve already subscribed to boil-proof clothing so we can enjoy the pleasure of the sauna.

Why install an app when you can just use the bank’s website?

Apple released a more user friendly version of this in 2021 https://www.apple.com/privacy/docs/A_Day_in_the_Life_of_Your_Data.pdf

I think it’s safe to say that, at this point, most people know that their information is being sucked up. But very few care at all. Some of the people I’ve spoken with are actually in favor of being tracked because they find it beneficial and they want better ads. I don’t know if this is a real desire for them or if they’ve been brainwashed.

The chance of your personal data being used against you is increasing every day. Leaks are happening all the time; largely from databases presumed to be more secure than an app on your phone. Still, relatively few people are really affected by this.

Please tell me otherwise but it seems that the worst thing the data collecting raised in this post could do is manipulate an algorithm to show you ads or social media content or other website content (most concerning, political propaganda).

That’s to say, okay - this is weird but you have to tell people why they should care if you want them to raise concern. WHY is this “terrifying”? I mean, I can speculate but even the worst case scenarios I’ve told people about have barely raise an eyebrow.

I’ve had Verizon Fios for about twelve years. They’ve actually lowered my bill three times and increased my speed once without me asking. That’s why I haven’t switched and will always seek them out in the future.

No. It’s because it’s you. Blocked.

OP is really shilling for Bluesky.

I see you’ve chosen to ignore the point about the influence this has on hundreds of millions of people.

You are so fucking wrong. I have never understood this logic that because people are doing things out in the open that it’s a good thing. They are popularizing their ideas. More people are exposed to them when they’re out in the open. Had they been operating in some obscure forum, they would lack the advertising of their ideas to others.

For what possible reason could this be “positive”? So that the rest of us are aware of their first amendment protected hateful ideas? What good does that do anyone? We just elected one of them to be president of the United States. Allowing hate speech to bloom out in the open tempers our reactions and slowly seeps into our minds as propaganda.

Freedom of speech is, in the US, something that the US Constitution promises will not be restricted by Congress. It is not something any private company is required to protect. I would argue that private companies have a responsibility to its users to ban all hate speech and report substantiated threats to law enforcement.

I would like to see more investment in informative media. Social media has been one of the best sources to get information about local events, news, and alerts.

Speaking from an American’s perspective, I would like to see federated networks organized similarly to the United States. There should be one main federal instance, then a sub instance for states, eventually down to micro instances for neighborhoods or zip codes.

My complaint about “corporate social media” has been its need to make money from advertising driven by engagement. This means I miss tons of posted information by family, friends, businesses, bands, restaurants, record shops, farmers markets, city council members, police departments, reporters, etc.

I still want to connect with these users but getting them on board with the fediverse is an uphill battle if they’re only in it for the memes. Creating a platform that makes some tangible sense to people, I think, would drive more adoption. If you want to connect with your city, join cityname.state.US.verse. This wouldn’t exclude the creation of other networks like I dunno… nestle.corp.verse or tiktok.social.verse.

Thank you.

I’d like to know seven years after when.

Thanks.