Tumblr-- what do you think

[marions ghost]

they were recently acquired by Yahoo I believe. And their Privacy Policy says this:

"For information about how Tumblr collects, uses, and shares your information, please review our Privacy Policy. You agree that by using the Services you consent to the collection, use, and sharing (as set forth in the Privacy Policy) of such information, including the transfer of this information to the United States and/or other countries for storage, processing, and use by Tumblr and the Tumblr Affiliates (as defined below)."

I like Tumblr but.....

[ManiacJoe]

1. That one quoted paragraph

describes everything that is necessary for the stuff to be uploaded and displayed to the users and all the data you voluntarily give to them.

Anything that is objectionable will be described later in the document.

[marions ghost]

2. Thanks I am looking for the objectionable

Would this be an example of that?:

Information Related to Use of the Services: We collect information about how people use the Services, including those with an Account. This type of information may be collected in our log files each time you interact with (i.e., make a request to) the Services. We use internal tools (from both Tumblr and Yahoo) and third party applications and services (like Google Analytics or comScore) to collect and analyze this information. Some of this information may also be associated with the Internet Protocol Address (“IP Address”) used to access the Services; some may be connected with your Account; and some may only be collected and used in aggregate form (as a statistical measure that wouldn’t identify you or your Account). We also collect your IP Address when you make a post, particularly when you submit an anonymous “Ask.” We may use this information about how you and others interact with the Services for a number of things generally related to enhancing, improving, protecting, and developing new Services, including but not limited to: providing users with personalized content; providing users with targeted advertising; improving our search results; identifying trending or popular content; fighting spam, malware, identity theft and generally keeping our users and community safe; and for legal and safety reasons as set forth in “Information Disclosed for Our Protection and the Protection of Others.”

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Information About Your Contacts: Certain features of the Services allow you to provide us with your contact lists, so that we can connect you with people in our Services that are also on those contact lists. For example, you can temporarily connect your email contact information to your Account, so that we can provide you with a list of your email contacts that use the Services. As another example, you can send us your mobile phone contact information through our mobile applications, which then allows us to provide you with a list of those contacts that use the Services so that you can “follow” their blogs. We will give you a choice as to whether or not you provide us such information, and we will disclose fully, within the appropriate feature, how we use that information.

We won’t look at (or be able to look at) your contact list unless you ask us to. Why would you ask us to? Because that’s how you would find out if any of your contacts are on Tumblr. We discard this information immediately afterward.

Derived Information: As described above in “Native Actions” and “Information Related to Use of the Services,” we analyze your actions on the Services in order to derive or infer characteristics that may be descriptive of your Account (for example, what kinds of blogs you follow or what kinds of posts you view, like, or reblog). We use this information for all of the purposes set forth in “Information Related to Use of the Services,” above.

[ManiacJoe]

3. The common place for objectionable terms would

normally be in the "Subscriber Content License to Tumblr:" section of the TOS. However, at a quick glance Tumblr seems to be pretty good about it.

Most folks probably object to personal info used for "providing users with targeted advertising", but there is not much you can do about that short of not using the service since that activity is now an industry standard.

Reading your contacts would be an example of objectionable activity if they did not get your permission first.

As far as the info Tumblr is collecting about their users, Tumblr seems pretty upfront about what it is doing.

[marions ghost]

4. So basically there are no restrictions

on Tumblr or any of these sites meeting "industry standards."

So industry standards do not protect the consumer in any way and "targeted advertising" and other objectionable uses are wide open. They can do anything they want with your info and your IP address, as long as you agree to it beforehand by checking the agree box (so you can use the site) it appears. And they know that nobody but a geeky researcher like me would ever read the fine print. So they're covered. Unlike on Amazon this does not SEEM like it's a transactional process involved with consumer products. So it's more sneaky.

And then there's the NSA. Ed Snowden recently said:

"We watch our own people more closely than we watch any other population in the world." Snowden explained how he himself could have spied on any person, "from a federal judge to the president of the United States," from his own desk, as long as he had an e-mail address or other digital identifier of the target. "When you make a purchase, when you buy a book. All of that is collected," Snowden said. "I could see it at my desk, crossing my screen."

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I guess all we can do is stay off these sites at this point in time. It's a shame because they do offer some good services. But I disagree with what they're doing in principle--the reselling of our data for profit (I realize nothing comes free), and I think the NSA data mining--the govt having access to everything you do... is a huge invasion of privacy.

Thanks for your input.

[ManiacJoe]

5. It is the industry standards that are screwing over the consumers.

"Targeted advertising and other objectionable uses" are the industry standards.

Tumblr is being honest in telling you what the are doing. Some sites are not so honest in the telling.

Yes, most folks do click on the "I agree" button without reading the fine print.