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this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2025
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Plex centralizes authentication at plex.tv
When a user wants to connect to a 'private' plex server, they must first sign into their plex.tv account, which then provides the auth token needed to login to the users server (even if both the client and server are on the same lan)
With this system, Plex can monitor and control every single connection to every plex server; limiting access to whatever they want. Even your own local content.
Dam thats what I thought. Emby has something similar but doesnt force you to use it so I don't.
Emby has what they call 'Emby Connect' which is entirely optional and is basically a glorified DNS service.
It doesn't proxy connections, it just passes on the hostname to the client. The server is still required to setup port forwarding or other routing like tailscale or a proxy on a vps.
Emby Connect will let you sign into your local server using your emby.media credentials, but unlike Plex it's completely optional and only works once explicitly linked to the local user of an Emby server.
Yeah hell to the naww. They're also probably tracking all your viewing habits and monetizing that data, they'd be foolish not to with that kind of access.