Pidgin: Questions about plugins?

I've been seeing a lot of updates for Pidgin during the last weeks, and for now I'm putting my pluging (ie: Facebook, guifications, etc) into the App folder. Are plugins also working under the Data folder?

Because at every updates, I need to recopy my plugins into the new install I would definitely would like to have the ability of putting my plugin files into the Data folder for the convenience of not getting them wiped out with every new Pidgin release.

Thanks!

m-p{3}