A Question: How much information if the Emby client on my Firestick sending and receiving out to the public?

[tgraph 1]

Do I need a VPN running on the Firestick to keep my information private?

[Luke 42077]

Hi, Emby doesn’t have any telemetry if that’s  what you’re asking.

[tgraph 1]

What do you mean by 'telemetry'?

[Luke 42077]

Telemetry is the automated collection and wireless transmission of data from remote or inaccessible sources to a central system for monitoring, analysis, and control

[tgraph 1]

What about protection from public eyes? Not Emby. I run the FIrestick on our wifi... without remote access. How much information is vulnerable?

Edited December 29, 2025 by tgraph

[tgraph 1]

nevermind

Edited December 30, 2025 by tgraph

[Luke 42077]

The best way to secure yourself from that I would say would be to setup https on your server.

[unisoft 352]

On 29/12/2025 at 23:33, tgraph said:

What about protection from public eyes? Not Emby. I run the FIrestick on our wifi... without remote access. How much information is vulnerable?

Standard headers from client.

No telemetry or other data going to emby team.

Access remotely you must use https or vpn to be secure.

Amazon can see everything if they want to, I think there is an option in fire stick settings to limit this 'sharing'.

[tgraph 1]

Thanks.

It seems hard to get just a straight answer to these questions:

I use Emby on my home computer.
I use Emby on a Firestick on my TV.

I do not all remote access.

My router doesn't do any port-forwarding.

Do I need a VPN on the computer or Firestick to keep any and all information private?

Do I need HTTPS on the Emby server to keep any and all information private?

Is either Emby instance sending any data out to the internet?

All I get is Emby isn't getting any telemetry from me.

Edited January 3 by tgraph

[ebr 16169]

Sending to "the public"?  Zero.

We don't send or share any information with the public.  The only thing going outside your network would be things like checks for updates and device validation.  Both to our servers only.

I guess the caveat would be the fact that all the metadata functions are going out to various sites and doing searches and, in doing that, they have to provide some sort of identification to search on (like a name of a movie).

[tgraph 1]

So that would be a yes, some specific identifiable information is being shared out on the wider internet outside of my home WiFi network and your servers.

How is that not the very first answer given to my question?

Edited January 4 by tgraph

[tgraph 1]

Is there any of my personal information being sent with those metadata requests to those providers along with the file names?

[Neminem 1516]

If you don't trust them, then disable them in your library

[tgraph 1]

So.. disable useful functions to protect privacy.... Thanks for the comment that doesn't answer a single concern.

[Neminem 1516]

Ok well then

Privacy Policy - TheTVDB.com

Privacy Policy — The Movie Database (TMDB)

etc. google search then hold them up to it, if they don't comply.

Emby can't be liable for external resurses, when they can be disabled  

[Luke 42077]

3 hours ago, tgraph said:

Is there any of my personal information being sent with those metadata requests to those providers along with the file names?

HI, no there isn't. But the request does come from your server machine so they will be able to see that ip address. But nothing more than that.

[ebr 16169]

22 hours ago, Luke said:

HI, no there isn't. But the request does come from your server machine so they will be able to see that ip address. But nothing more than that.

Some providers also require API keys or logins and some of those are provided by the end user (e.g. subtitles) but this is no different from you going to that web site in your browser.