Wetransfer: the star tool of companies wanted to exploit their data

It is a simple paragraph, innocently entitled “Clause 6.3”, which could have been drowned in this obscure jungle of legal terms that almost no one reads. Furthermore, Except that several individuals raised the eyebrow by discovering it. Nevertheless, A few days ago. In addition, the bulky files of files WeTransfer has indeed updated its general conditions of use (CGU), manifestly in all discretion. Therefore, A little too much, maybe.

Not requiring written acceptance on the part of users. Meanwhile, not offering alternative options, the Dutch company, bought by an Italian company at the end of 2024, thus made a new passage stipulating that the private data passing through the service would be, from August 8, 2025, used by the company:

“In order to operate, develop, market and improve the service or new wetransfer: star tool companies wanted technologies or services, including to improve the performance of automatic learning models which strengthen our content moderation process, in accordance with the Privacy Policy and Cookies.”

Controversy around data

Clearly. Similarly, Wetransfer suddenly seemed to assume the right to deliver the data of its customers to its tool artificial intelligence to train it. As we could imagine … Buffer in combat in technological and economic circles.

Existing for over ten years, Wetransfer is indeed a service very commonly used by companies and administrations around the world.

Each day. a large amount of data, often sensitive, strategic or struck by the seal of intellectual property transit via the servers of the Italian company. That the latter allows itself to exploit data supposed to not escape from the encrypted communication wetransfer: star tool companies wanted channels passed for. an aberration.

Artificial. business intelligence

Faced with the planetary controversy, Wetransfer then split a press release explaining that the criminal sentence had been misunderstood. The passage pointed out in the T & Cs has since been modified. Just a little misunderstanding, then?

“I do not think. because the update of the conditions of use was really explicit, it stipulated black on white that the data could serve to feed the AI, launches the lawyer Sébastien Fanti, former attendant to Data protection. There was perhaps no malicious intention behind that, the goal was probably to make a little money with their data. ”

By buying Wetransfer. the Italian achievement had said it wanted to cut up to three quarters of the company’s workforce, a possible sign that it is no longer so profitable in its current model.

“The problem is that this attempt to pass by force will kill the company. In a few days, she destroyed a reputation built for a decade, analyzes Sébastien Fanti. Even backing up. pretending that the problematic passage was just clumsily written, the evil is done, because companies may no longer have confidence. ”

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