Photobucket, one of the largest subscription-based image and video hosting platforms, recently updated its terms of service that says all users’ and customers’ personal photography and videos will be sold to third-party platforms to help train their artificial intelligence programs, and users have no choice but to accept these new rules.
Photobucket’s controversial updated “Terms Of Service” went into effect today, July 22nd, leaving many customers and privacy advocates fuming. The new agreement tells users that the company can not only share user’s materials for free, they can now also sell customers’ very specific biometric data to third-party entities, which can include being used to train AI algorithms.
The company states:
You grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, transferable, right and license to: copy, stream, post, display, publicly perform, and reproduce the Sharable User Uploaded Content so that we may offer the Services to you and to others at your request (e.g. image sharing and hosting by you) as well as other rights set forth herein.
You further grant Photobucket a worldwide, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, transferable, right and license to: copy, convey, distribute, stream, post, publicly display (e.g. post it elsewhere), publicly perform, reproduce Public User Uploaded Content and create derivative works from it (meaning things based on it), whether in print or any kind of electronic version that exists now or is later developed, for any purpose, including a commercial purpose with the right to sublicense such rights to others.
In particular, to the extent permitted by the laws of your region, you grant us the right to commercialize, including the right to license or sell your Public User Uploaded Content to third parties for the scanning and processing of Public User Uploaded Content, including extracting physical features (e.g., measurements) of your Biometric Information, solely for the purpose of artificial intelligence and machine learning training and the subsequent uses derived therefrom. The law in areas such as data privacy is continually changing. If you notice something amiss, please contact us at support@photobucket.com, and we will review and remedy the issue as appropriate.
For further clarification as to how the company defines their “Biometric Information Privacy Policy,” Photobucket writes:
By agreeing to this Biometric Policy you grant Photobucket, to the extent permitted by the laws of your region, the right to sell, lease, trade or otherwise profit from the disclosure of your Public User Uploaded Content which may contain Biometric Information that may be extracted.
Biometric Information Definition: Biometric Information refers to data that depict or describe physical, biological, or behavioral traits, characteristics, or measurements of or relating to an identified or identifiable person’s body. Biometric Information includes, but is not limited to, depictions, images, descriptions, or recordings of an individual’s facial features, iris or retina, finger or handprints, voice, genetics, or characteristic movements or gestures (e.g., gait or typing pattern).
Biometric Information also includes data derived from such depictions, images, descriptions, or recordings, to the extent that it would be reasonably possible to identify the person from whose information the data had been derived.
By way of example, both a photograph of a person’s face and a facial recognition template, embedding, faceprint, or other data that encode measurements or characteristics of the face depicted in the photograph constitute Biometric Information. There are different definitions for biometric information, or biometric data, under different state laws. Within this Biometric Policy we generally adopt the Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) definition.
Tech repairman and right-to-repair advocate Louis Rossman said in a video post that out of all of the companies and brands he has exposed for doing this type of behavior for a long time, this currently takes the cake for “the worst company of the year.”
Rossman notes that there is not even a standard button that forces users to ‘accept’ the new terms; customers are simply opted in and have no way to opt out, even if customers have not interacted with the platform for lengthy periods of time.
Moreover, Rossman contends Photobucket is basically trolling customers with their claims of abiding by the FTC’s guidelines. In May, The WinePress reported how the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) imposed miniscule and nearly nonexistent fines on American telecommunications monopolies (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint) for illegally selling American’s private data, but members of the FCC said in their ruling that they were unsure if they should even fine these companies for their treachery.
Last month, Photoshop caused a ruckus when it forced customers to either ‘accept’ their new updated terms of service, or paying customers would be unable to access the products and projects they were paying for and working on unless they accepted the new terms. When the backlash grew Adobe actually lied and attempted to claim this was optional, but this was simply not the case. SEE: Adobe Forces Customers To Accept User Agreement To ‘Access Your Content Through Both Automated And Manual Methods’
Many commenters under Rossman’s video added that Photoshop had set the bar super low by giving customers no way around this (accept for cancelling and pirating Adobe’s products), but Photobucket has even sunk lower than that by not even forcing a petty ‘accept’ button.
But Photobucket is just the tip of the iceberg. Last year The WP reported that practically all major auto manufacturers are tracking awfully specific data on drivers and passengers, including things such as “preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes” are tracked, shared, and sold.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
Once again, fulfilling the World Economic Forum’s Orwellian dystopian moniker: “You’ll Own Nothing and Be Happy.”
The right to privacy is gone, it’s dead like the dodo. Everywhere you turn the very most private and personal things unique and intrinsic to us are being sold for a pretty penny.
Thankfully I have never used Photobucket; and it goes without saying that you absolutely should not use their services.
Of course, Photobucket is throwing us a bone by telling us they are doing this. How many other companies and government services have been doing this unabated without our knowledge and consent for years now?
Psalm 44:12 Thou sellest thy people for nought, and dost not increase thy wealth by their price.
Proverbs 20:14 It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer: but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth.
Proverbs 28:24 Whoso robbeth his father or his mother, and saith, It is no transgression; the same is the companion of a destroyer.
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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