WeTransfer revises terms of service after user backlash over AI training concerns
The Netherlands-based company on Tuesday, July 15, announced it has tweaked its service terms to remove any mention of machine learning and AI. 'We wanted to clarify that we don't use machine learning or any form of AI to process content shared via WeTransfer,' the company wrote in a post on X.
The clarification comes after public backlash sparked by a recent update to WeTransfer's service terms, where the company had suggested that files uploaded by users could be used to 'improve machine learning models.' The clause in the original version had said that WeTransfer only had a right to 'reproduce, modify, distribute and publicly display' content.
'From your feedback, we understood that it may have been unclear that you retain ownership and control of your content. We've since updated the terms further to make them easier to understand. We've also removed the mention of machine learning, as it's not something WeTransfer uses in connection with customer content and may have caused some apprehension,' the company said.
The relevant section in the latest version of the terms of service agreement reads: 'You hereby grant us a royalty-free license to use your content for the purposes of operating, developing, and improving the service, all in accordance with our privacy & cookie policy.'
User concerns over privacy and data ownership have intensified in the age of AI, as tech companies are scraping publicly available, copyright-protected data from every nook and corner of the internet to train their AI models. For instance, Elon Musk's xAI uses public posts on X to train its Grok chatbot while Meta scrapes publicly-shared content from users above 18 for AI training. This is done by both platforms without obtaining user consent first.
User content has never been used, even internally, to test or develop AI models, according to a WeTransfer spokesperson. 'We hope that amending our legal terms to remove mention of machine learning and make the licensing conditions clearer will reassure those among our customers who were wondering what the update meant for them,' the spokesperson was quoted as saying by The Guardian.
Founded in 2009, WeTransfer is used to send large files via email or by sharing a link. Users do not need to create an account to use the filesharing service. The platform reportedly has over 80 million monthly users across 190 countries.
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