August 8, 2025 was to mark a turning point in Wetransfer’s privacy policy. The platform, widely acclaimed by the creation professionals, announced a rewriting of its clause 6.3, taking a license “perpetual, global, non-exclusive, free, transferable and sub-writer”On all the files hosted. Even more disturbing: she included the right to“Reproduce, distribute, modify, create derivative works“, And explicitly specified the potential use of the content for“Improve the performance of automatic learning models used for moderation“.
The absence of active consent or compensation, in a context where the documents transferred – sometimes confidential or contractually committed – could supply AI technologies, quickly alarmed the community of creators.
On social networks, photographers, designers, producers and agencies denounced this appropriation deemed abusive and called for boycott, in favor of other alternatives like Smash or Swisstransfer – which for their part, were not deprived to communicate on their opposite positioning. In line of sight, the dilution of control over works under licenses, as much as the possibility that the intellectual property of some serves without limits to algorithms of AI-or even third parties, via the possibility of an underside, also mentioned in the new general conditions of use of Wetransfer.
Denial, explanation, rewriting
Faced with the crisis, Wetransfer has multiplied public statements to calm the game. The platform assured: “We do not use automatic learning or any form of AI to treat shared content via Wetransfer, and we sell neither file nor given to third parties“Under the spotlight, the controversial clause was completely rewritten in less than 48 hours To remove any mention of artificial intelligence and machine learning. The final version is now limited to a “free rights license to operate, develop and improve the service“.
If the case has been talked about, it also illustrates above all a substantive trend in the sector, where the border between improving service and commercial exploitation of content becomes more and more vague. Especially since the controversy comes a few months after the acquisition of Wetransfer by the Italian publisher Bending Spoons, already the owner of Evernote, Filmic Pro or Meetup. If the desire to optimize (or even make profitable) the brand’s digital assets is not officially assumed, this commercial context fuels the vigilance of Internet users, already turned to competing, more transparent and more turned solutions to compliance with personal data.
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