After trying and failing to quell the almighty backlash from users who were worried their private data was in jeopardy, Evernote has decided not to implement changes to its privacy policy.
The new policy, which the company had planned to launch in January 2017, stated that employees of Evernote would be able to access user data in order to improve the company’s machine learning system.
As you’d expect, this didn’t go over particularly well with the users themselves. Though Evernote tried to assure them that the change would be opt-out and the data would be entirely anonymous, the damage appeared to have been irreversible.
Privacy problems
In a post on its blog, the company has announced that “after receiving a lot of customer feedback expressing concerns” it has decided to "[reaffirm] its commitment to keep privacy at the center of what [it does]” and won’t change its privacy policy.
Instead, Evernote said it would revise its existing policy to address customer concerns and confirm their trust. It will, however, still bring machine learning technology to its users, but promises no employees will be able to read this content unless users opt in.
Evernote’s CEO Chris O'Neill admitted to Fast Company “we screwed up” but that the policy change was “not from a root of anything but good intentions.”
