Evernote will allow users to opt-in for its controversial machine learning technology after backlash

Famous note-taking service, Evernote has decided to remove its proposed privacy policy that would let some its staff look into a user’s account and also peek into their notes. The policy change was to be implemented on 23 January, but has now been removed after receiving plenty of negative feedback from its users for being a bit too broad. Evernote’s idea behind allowing its employees to access personal data was to “improve its machine learning technology”. While it would have helped Evernote and users in more ways than one, the idea of letting anyone access a user’s personal notes, did find plenty of opposition from users. The move came about as a proposed modification where users would need to opt-out of the service to prevent employees or the company from peeking into a user’s notes. The key here is that machine learning would be switched on by default for all users, letting employees access everyone’s notes to improve the learning process. Evernote has now apologised for the same and stated that the move could have been communicated better. On its blog , Evernote CEO Chris O’Neill stated that the company would be going back to the drawing board and reversing the course of its proposed policy. Users will be able to share data with employees only if they choose to opt-in. So now the machine learning service will be off by default and only users who want to take advantage of the service will need to now opt-in (instead of opt-out). “We announced a change to our privacy policy that made it seem like we didn’t care about the privacy of our customers or their notes. This was not our intent, and our customers let us know that we messed up, in no uncertain terms. We heard them, and we’re taking immediate action to fix it,” said O’Neill.