Are Plex’s New Features Sharing Your Watch History Without You Knowing?

Why Are Plex Users Angry About the New Ratings and Can You Disable Them?

Plex, a popular service for organizing and streaming personal media collections, recently introduced new features that have sparked significant discussion among its user base. The updates, which include social tools and detailed content ratings, have received both praise and criticism, leading many to question the company’s direction and its commitment to user control. These changes touch upon user experience, privacy, and the fundamental purpose of the platform.

Understanding the New Content Ratings

One of the most debated new features is the integration of ratings from Common Sense Media. This service provides in-depth, age-appropriate reviews for movies and television shows, going far beyond traditional rating systems like G, PG, or R. The goal is to give parents a detailed tool to understand the content their children might see.

For instance, instead of just a PG rating, a film’s profile in Plex might now show specific notes from Common Sense Media about its levels of violence, language, mature themes, or positive messages. This offers a more granular view, allowing families to make more informed decisions based on their own values.

Why Some Parents Applaud the Ratings

For a segment of the Plex community, particularly parents, this addition is a welcome improvement. Many families already use the Common Sense Media website to check content before movie night, and having this information integrated directly into their Plex library saves time and effort. The detailed breakdowns are seen as a powerful tool for modern parenting.

• Customized Vetting: Parents can decide what content is acceptable based on specific criteria. One user highlighted that they are more concerned with violence than with swearing. The new ratings allow them to easily distinguish between the two, something a simple rating like “PG-13” often fails to do.
• Context for Older Films: Another user pointed out the benefit for older movies. A film rated PG decades ago might contain scenes or themes that are surprising or considered inappropriate by today’s standards. These detailed ratings provide necessary context that helps parents avoid awkward situations.
• Convenience: The integration streamlines the process of choosing family-friendly content. Instead of using a separate app or website, all the information is right there on the screen, making it easier to pick a movie that everyone can enjoy comfortably.

The Pushback: A Lack of User Choice

However, a large portion of the user base is unhappy with the implementation of these ratings. The primary source of frustration is that the feature is mandatory. A Plex employee confirmed that, in the current version, there is no way for users to hide or disable the Common Sense Media ratings. This lack of an “off” switch has been perceived as a loss of control over their personal media servers.

Many users feel they do not need or want this feature. Some arguments against it include:

• Perceived Bias: Critics of Common Sense Media describe its ratings as overly conservative or “puritanical.” One user cited the example that the service recommends the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” movie is not appropriate for children until middle school, pointing to notes on mild language and flirting as evidence of an excessively strict standard.
• Redundancy for Some Users: Many Plex users are adults without children or simply do not feel the need for such detailed content warnings. For them, the ratings add unnecessary clutter to the user interface.
• Outdated Standards: Questions have been raised about the consistency and relevance of the ratings. One user questioned why classic films like “Jaws” were not originally rated R, highlighting that the standards applied can feel arbitrary or based on the sensibilities of a different era. The inability to disable this feature has led to simple but direct pleas from users asking how they can remove it from their view.

Social Features and Growing Privacy Concerns

Alongside the content ratings, Plex rolled out new social features. These allow users to connect with friends, share their watch history, and see what others are rating and reviewing. To manage this, Plex introduced new privacy settings, such as “My Account Visibility” and “Allow Friend Requests From.” By default, the setting for friend requests is set to “Nobody,” giving users initial control over who can connect with them.

Despite these controls, users quickly discovered potential privacy issues. One user warned others to check their settings on the Plex mobile app, noting an option to opt out of friend requests from “any user who visited your profile.” Critically, this user added that this specific setting could not be changed from a computer, only from within the mobile application. This lack of cross-platform consistency raised alarms.

The Data-Sharing Setting That Broke Trust

The most significant controversy, however, stemmed from a different privacy setting related to targeted advertising. A user alerted the community to check their “TCF vendors” setting, which controls data sharing with advertising partners. This user, and several others who chimed in, reported that their preference had been automatically changed. They had previously set all data-sharing options to “No,” but found that an update had switched some of them back to “Yes” without their consent.

This action was widely condemned as unethical and a breach of trust. Users expressed intense frustration, feeling that Plex was systematically opting them into data sharing against their explicit wishes. The incident reinforced a growing fear that Plex is prioritizing monetization and advertising revenue over user privacy. For many, this move was a step too far, turning a once-trusted personal media hub into what they felt was just another ad-driven platform. The sentiment was clear: while new features can be good, automatically changing privacy settings without permission is unacceptable.

A Shift in Identity?

These two updates—the non-optional ratings and the concerning privacy setting changes—have left many longtime users feeling disillusioned. The core appeal of Plex has always been the promise of control. It allows you to build, manage, and access your own media library on your own terms. The recent changes suggest a possible shift away from this core identity.

The fear is that Plex is evolving into a more mainstream streaming service, complete with the ads, data collection, and locked-in features that many users originally sought to escape. While some of the new tools are genuinely useful for a portion of the audience, the lack of choice and questionable privacy practices have created a significant rift in the community, leaving many to wonder about the future of the platform they helped build.

How to Check Your Plex Privacy Settings

Given the user reports, it is wise to review your Plex account settings. Here is where you can find the relevant options.

Social Privacy Settings

Log in to your Plex account. Navigate to your Account Settings and look for the Privacy section. Here you can adjust “My Account Visibility” and other sharing preferences. Remember to also check these settings within the Plex mobile app, as some options may be exclusive to it.

Advertising Data Sharing (TCF Vendors)

To find this setting, log in to the Plex website. Go to your Account Settings page. Near the bottom, you should find a section or link for privacy preferences related to vendors or advertising. Here you can review the list of TCF vendors and manually opt out of data sharing with each one. It is recommended to check this periodically, especially after software updates.