WeTransfer changes its terms again after being suspected of fishy use of content
The company has come under fire over the use of file-sharers’ content to train language models.
Image by T. Schneider | Shutterstock
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The company has come under fire over the use of file-sharers’ content to train language models.
WeTransfer, a service that many use to send large files through cloud-based transfer, has been under scrutiny after it announced that it is updating its terms and conditions.
The new terms and conditions were scheduled to come into effect in August.
The reason why the change received so much attention was due to changes found under the heading of “Content,” clause 6.3, reports Film Stories.
According to this clause, users who agree to these terms and conditions grant WeTransfer the right to use the content sent via the service to train artificial intelligence (AI) models.
It’s also been noted that in case a user sends their artwork through WeTransfer, this work can be put in an AI platform, where it’s used to make by-products of such work, and there’s nothing users can do about it.
The renewed WeTransfer Terms of Service start from the 8th of August.
As stated by the company via Film Stories, WeTransfer doesn’t use machine learning to process content shared through the service. It also acknowledged that the changes made to the Terms of Service were confusing regarding “the possibility of using AI to improve content moderation and further enhance our measures to prevent the distribution of illegal or harmful content on the WeTransfer platform.”
This confusion made the company edit the passage, so that it would be easier for users to understand the changes behind the renewed document.
The updated information under Content, clause 6.3, now states that the company needs to obtain users' rights for “for the purposes of operating, developing, and improving the Service, all in accordance with our Privacy & Cookie Policy.”
It’s been noted that the part about it using users' work to “reproduce, distribute, modify, prepare derivative works” has been removed.
The changes in WeTransfer’s Terms of Service started a discussion online, with many being disappointed with the company’s services.
“I cancelled them when they increased the annual plan by a crazy amount. I just use Swiss Transfer or get people to install Blip. Both free. Just sent 200GB today,” wrote one Redditor.
“Not like any recent of their changes were any good, but that’s the last nail in the coffin, hopefully all studios will be leaving that shitty service as soon as possible,” noted another user.
Some netizens also took the time to look at the terms and conditions of other companies that offer similar services.
“I took a look at MASV and Lucid and Dropbox and could not find any similar wording about display and modify or anything about ‘machine,’” concluded one netizen.