Evernote, the widely popular digital note-taking application, quietly announced that is planning to introduce a major update to its privacy policy early next year. But, the change being introduced for the sake of technological development of the platform is putting the user’s notes and data at a potential risk of exposure. You might be wondering — how?
To be more specific about the privacy policy, Evernote will introduce changes that’ll enable a group of its employees to access notes to work on the improvement of the company’s machine learning technologies. The employees will be able to access data starting 23 January to make the machine learning algorithms for the working of the note-taking app more relevant and personal. Some human oversight, it states, is required to ensure that the algorithms are learning their functions properly. The said update on Evernote’s official website states:
The said update on Evernote’s official website states:
The latest update to the Privacy Policy allows some Evernote employees to exercise oversight of machine learning technologies applied to account content. While our computer systems do a pretty good job, sometimes a limited amount of human review is simply unavoidable in order to make sure everything is working exactly as it should.
In addition, the company further goes on to justify the changes being introduced to their application. It notes that the Evernote employees with access to user data are limited in number. Those who’ve been selected for this program are “subject to background checks and receive specific security and privacy training at least annually.” This statement, however, further adds fuel to the fire because it somehow translates to the fact that these employees have had access to your data before the said disclosure as well — not assured by Evernote.
Also, the company is creating secure silos to store personal user data and yet again access to these environments is limited to authorized pupil. The data is also said to be protected with strong authentication measures to protect that access but it is still violating an individual’s person space by reading their notes. Thus, this rampant chaos regarding the note-taking app has erupted on the interwebs. Twitter has yet again become the playground for allegations and trolls.
I am super, super glad I stopped using @evernote before I switched into engineering. This is (rightfully) a PR nightmare. https://t.co/sUDslvTs2w
— Seán Hanson (@SeanMHanson) December 14, 2016
.@Evernote is changing privacy policy so employees of Evernote can look at your notes. Be aware, and opt-out. https://t.co/QslEBGXvgv
— Michael Oman-Reagan (@OmanReagan) December 10, 2016
Yes, Michael is right about one thing. Though you cannot stop Evernote from accessing your personal notes under other conditions like with resellers, law enforcement requests or sales. But you can still opt out from the machine learning improvement program by heading straight to your settings and unticking the option where it reads ‘Allow Evernote to use my data to improve my experience.’ And then you won’t be able to receive a customized recommendation service from the company.
Yeah, so what!? We’re not ready to compromise our privacy for the betterment of the service. Or are we? Comment your thoughts down below.
