A change to WeTransfer’s terms and conditions has prompted global outrage.
The company has now reversed its more controversial updates and suggested that the outcry was the result of “confusion”.
WeTransfer allows users to upload files so that they can be sent to other people on the internet, who can then download them again.
A recent change to its terms, which was due to go into effect on 8 August, gave it the ability to use uploaded files “improve performance of machine learning models”. It is part of a sweeping set of rules that allow WeTransfer to use files in a variety of ways, which it said are necessary to power the service.
But those changes, particularly those that suggested that private files could be used to train artificial intelligence tools, prompted outcry and suggestions that people should use other competitors instead.
Now, WeTransfer has told the BBC that it doesn’t “use machine learning or any form of AI to process content shared via WeTransfer, nor do we sell content or data to any third parties”.
The clause had been added to allow it to potentially use “AI to improve content moderation” and limit the spread of harmful content, it said.
But it said that it would alter the terms to make “the language easier to understand”. “This passage may have caused confusion for our customers,” it told the BBC.
WeTransfer has now tweaked the rules so that WeTransfer still has license to use the content that is uploaded but to remove reference to artificial intelligence. “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,” the updated change now reads.
The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Independent.
They will still go into effect on 8 August.
