Evernote changes course on its privacy policy; will not allow employees to see your notes

Yesterday, Evernote announced some changes to its privacy policy that proved to be very controversial. To help with its machine learning efforts, some employees would gain the ability to see users’ personal notes.

The changes weren’t meant to go into effect until January 23, and now they won’t be. In fact, the firm has admitted that it has made a mistake, and is now trying to make sure that its users know that they can still trust it.

“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. “We are excited about what we can offer Evernote customers thanks to the use of machine learning, but we must ask for permission, not assume we have it. We’re sorry we disappointed our customers, and we are reviewing our entire privacy policy because of this.”

The key phrase there is that Evernote will be asking for permission, rather than assuming that it has it. Yesterday’s notice gave users the option to opt-out of the company’s machine learning, but now, you’ll have to explicitly opt in.

If you have any questions or feedback, Evernote says that you can head over to its forums.