Evernote’s Privacy Nightmare. Evernote Employees can Read Your Notes.
Evernote has posted an update to their Privacy Policy today. It will take effect on January 24, 2017. The changes have serious privacy implications and with users threatening to leave the service.
If you’re an Evernote user keeping, a lot of personal information in your Evernote account, you’ll want to pay close attention to these Privacy Policy changes.
Kate Conger, Writing for TechCrunch
The policy changes have to do with machine learning, which Evernote says it is using to “help you get the most out of your Evernote experience.” Evernote wants to let its machine learning algorithms crunch your data, but it doesn’t want to stop there — the company also wants to let some of its employees read your notes so it can ensure that the machine learning is functioning properly.
“The latest update to the Privacy Policy allows some Evernote employees to exercise oversight of machine learning technologies applied to account content,” Evernote said in an announcement of the new privacy policy. “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.”
Evernote claims that only a limited number of employees who have undergone background checks will be able to access user data and that users can encrypt notes they consider sensitive to prevent employees from reading them. But many Evernote users aren’t satisfied with those protections and are threatening to leave the service.
According to Evernote’s Notice of Privacy Policy Updates (January 2017) you have the option to opt-out of the machine learning features.
I really don’t like this change and don’t want Evernote employees to see my notes. What are my options?
While we think machine learning is a great tool that will help you get the most out of your Evernote experience, we understand that not everyone feels the same way. If you would prefer to opt out of machine learning technologies on your content (including some which require some human review for oversight purposes), you can do so in your account settings, where it says, “Allow Evernote to use my data to improve my experience.” If you do opt out, however, you may not be able to get the most out of your Evernote experience. And please note that you cannot opt out of employees looking at your content for other reasons stated in our Privacy Policy (under the section, “Does Evernote Share My Personal Information or Content?”).
Even if you opt-out of the machine learning features Evernote employees can still look at your notes. Excerpt from Evernote’s Privacy Policy:
Do Evernote Employees Access or Review My Data?
Below are the limited circumstances in which we may need to access or review your account information or Content:
• We believe our Terms of Service has been violated and confirmation is required or we otherwise have an obligation to review your account Content as described in our Terms of Service;
• We need to do so for troubleshooting purposes or to maintain and improve the Service;
• Where necessary to protect the rights, property or personal safety of Evernote and its users (including to protect against potential spam, malware or other security concerns); or
• In order to comply with our legal obligations, such as responding to warrants, court orders or other legal process. We vigilantly protect the privacy of your account Content and, whenever we determine it possible, we provide you with notice if we believe we are compelled to comply with a third party’s request for information about your account. Please visit our Information for Authorities page for more information.
Update
Evernote Revisits Privacy Policy Change in Response to Feedback
Evernote News by Greg Chiemingo on 15 Dec 2016
After receiving a lot of customer feedback expressing concerns about our upcoming Privacy Policy changes over the past few days, Evernote is reaffirming its commitment to keep privacy at the center of what we do. As a result, we will not implement the previously announced Privacy Policy changes that were scheduled to go into effect January 23, 2017.
Evernote users worried about the privacy of their notes should remember a couple of things. First, Evernote, like every other tech company, has to comply with warrants from law enforcement. If the police or the FBI has a legally sound reason to look at your notes, they can. Second, Evernote doesn’t encrypt your notes by default, meaning that hackers who break into the company’s servers or devious Evernote employees can access your notes.
