WeTransfer Ensh*tified
Author
Discussion

judas

Original Poster:

6,185 posts

276 months

Tuesday 15th July
quotequote all
Anyone else using this service to transfer sensitive files, or just stuff you don't want in the public domain? If so, you may want to find another provider. The latest TOS give WeTransfer unfettered access to your content for both machine learning, and to make and distribute derivative works without payment.



https://wetransfer.com/explore/legal/terms

Reddit discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/editors/comments/1lzvs38/...

Another vulture capitalist enshi*tification land grab. Vote with your wallet.

Derek Smith

47,881 posts

265 months

Tuesday 15th July
quotequote all
judas said:
Anyone else using this service to transfer sensitive files, or just stuff you don't want in the public domain? If so, you may want to find another provider. The latest TOS give WeTransfer unfettered access to your content for both machine learning, and to make and distribute derivative works without payment.



https://wetransfer.com/explore/legal/terms

Reddit discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/editors/comments/1lzvs38/...

Another vulture capitalist enshi*tification land grab. Vote with your wallet.
Thanks for the warning.

And they charge you when they take your rights from you.

simon_harris

2,188 posts

51 months

Tuesday 15th July
quotequote all
I expect they are relying on nobody noticing the change

RSTurboPaul

12,179 posts

275 months

Tuesday 15th July
quotequote all
Wasn't WeTransfer offering a free service option?

I always took the view that if something is free, you are the product tongue out

JoshSm

1,877 posts

54 months

Tuesday 15th July
quotequote all
Got to admit that even on a platform I'd trust I'd still encrypt before uploading - I'm not that trusting!

I'll generally assume they have the technical capability to access data so I'm going to assume the worst regardless of the T&C.

This update just demonstrates why having zero trust is a good idea.

phil4

1,520 posts

255 months

Tuesday 15th July
quotequote all
JoshSm said:
Got to admit that even on a platform I'd trust I'd still encrypt before uploading - I'm not that trusting!

I'll generally assume they have the technical capability to access data so I'm going to assume the worst regardless of the T&C.

This update just demonstrates why having zero trust is a good idea.
And that's how you give them the finger, use the service for free, but encrypt what you send so they can't read and profit from it.

judas

Original Poster:

6,185 posts

276 months

Tuesday 15th July
quotequote all
Not seen anything about this on the tech news sites so far, so I've emailed The Register, Ars Technica, and The Verge with a heads-up.

Would be good to see some decent coverage of this; hopefully it will encourage them back down.

JoshSm

1,877 posts

54 months

Tuesday 15th July
quotequote all
phil4 said:
JoshSm said:
Got to admit that even on a platform I'd trust I'd still encrypt before uploading - I'm not that trusting!

I'll generally assume they have the technical capability to access data so I'm going to assume the worst regardless of the T&C.

This update just demonstrates why having zero trust is a good idea.
And that's how you give them the finger, use the service for free, but encrypt what you send so they can't read and profit from it.
Or if it's free to upload just pollute it with garbage or random generated noise for their AI to chew on.

8bit

5,267 posts

172 months

Tuesday 15th July
quotequote all
Saw this on Instagram just now and came here to post about it. Anyone aware of a decent, non-evil alternative?

judas

Original Poster:

6,185 posts

276 months

Wednesday 16th July
quotequote all
They're now in backtracking/damage control mode.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp8mp79gyz1o

Still complete bullst.

8bit

5,267 posts

172 months

Friday 18th July
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Got an email from WeTransfer this morning notifying of a change in the TOS, I imagine most other people in this thread did too. I clicked through and rear the blog post about the changes:

https://wetransfer.com/blog/story/wetransfer-terms...

TL;DR - they very clearly state that they won't use customer content for AI training and won't sell customer content to third parties but clearly do not state that they won't use customer content for their own commercial purposes. I'm not sure I agree with their assertion that they need a licence from customers simply to provide their service (just to transfer files) but IANAL etc.

I'm still binning them anyway.

judas

Original Poster:

6,185 posts

276 months

Saturday 19th July
quotequote all
Reported in El Reg

https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/18/llm_product...

I even got quoted biggrin