Evernote has decided to "revisit" its controversial privacy policy following a swift backlash from its users.
In a statement on the company's blog, Evernote said it would no longer be implementing the privacy policy it had previously announced and that its machine learning updates, which necessitated some employees read portions of user notes, would be solely opt-in.
SEE ALSO:Evernote won't let you opt out of employees reading parts of your notesThe update comes one day after Evernote CEO Chris O'Neill said the company "communicated poorly" about the proposed changes but didn't back away from the changes, which he said would improve the company's note taking software.
"We will be revising our existing Privacy Policy to address our customers’ concerns, reinforce that their data remains private by default, and confirm the trust they have placed in Evernote is well founded," the company said in an update posted by Evernote's senior director of communications, Greg Chiemingo.
"In addition, we will make machine learning technologies available to our users, but no employees will be reading note content as part of this process unless users opt in."
In an effort to improve its machine learning technology, Evernote had said that some employees would be able to view portions of users' notes for quality control. O'Neill later clarified that personally identifying information would be hidden, but the explanation did little to reassure the privacy conscious.
While the latest update will no doubt come as welcome news, it raises the question of whether it is too little too late. As others have pointed out, Evernote can still gain access to users' notes in certain circumstances, like complying with a warrant from a law enforcement agency.
And while a promise to "revisit" its policies is a step in the right direction, without thoroughly explaining the alternatives, it's difficult to assess whether this is a short term fix to a publicity problem or the beginner of a longer term commitment to protecting user privacy.
By making its original changes opt-out only, so that users would automatically be enrolled into the new features unless they changed their account settings, the company sent a message -- intended or not -- that its technology was more important than its users privacy. That's not something that can be easily undone with an apologetic blog post.
It's also worth pointing out that Evernote doesn't use encryption by default, which some have criticized as it makes user data more susceptible to hackers. So, if you are an Evernote user, it's worth brushing up on how to use its encryption features.
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