Pinterest: Difference between revisions

| Industry =Social media service

| Official Website =https://pinterest.com/

}}'''[[wikipedia:Pinterest|Pinterest]]''' is a photo hosting service and company started by Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra, and Evan Sharp in December 2009. It was initially intended to function as a digital version of traditional catalogs, however it transitioned to being an image host shortly after.<ref>https://www.fastcompany.com/3001984/pinterest-pivot</ref>  

===Training of AI based on user-submitted content (2025)===

In March of 2025, Pinterest updated their TOS<ref name=":2">https://policy.pinterest.com/en/privacy-policy-preview</ref> to include a new clause which states:<blockquote>Improve the products and services of our family of companies and offer new features. For example, using information to train, develop and improve our technology such as our machine learning models, regardless of when Pins were posted. This includes, for example, Pinterest’s body type technology, which is trained on images in Pins posted to our Services.</blockquote>The vagueness of this new clause rightfully brings concern,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Harrison |first=Maggie |date=Mar 8, 2025 |title=Pinterest Changes User Terms So It Can Train AI on User Data and Photos, Regardless of When They Were Posted |url=https://futurism.com/pinterest-data-photos-train-ai |access-date=Mar 10, 2025 |work=Futurism}}</ref> as Pinterest has been well-known to host stolen content.<ref>https://www.reddit.com/r/Pinterest/comments/vuns1z/people_are_stealing_my_photos_what_can_i_do/</ref><ref>https://www.reddit.com/r/Pinterest/comments/183gceg/help_how_do_i_report_stolen_pins/</ref><ref>https://brandingforsmes.com/dealing-with-stolen-pinterest-pins-or-blog-content-a-guide-for-content-creators/</ref> This suggests that user-generated works may have been collected and used for AI training purposes without explicit consent. Such data could be utilized to train Pinterest's own AI models or sold as training data to other companies developing AI technologies.  

===Exploitation of pinned images (circa 2012)===

As content from creators are nonconsensually "pinned" to the platform, since 2012,<ref name=":1" /> if not earlier, Pinterest claims rights inside its TOS<ref name=":2" /><ref>Kalliopi Monoyios (March 19, 2012). "[http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/symbiartic/2012/03/19/pinterests-terms-of-service-word-by-terrifying-word/ Pinterest's Terms of Service, Word by Terrifying Word]". ''Scientific American''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20120523164313/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/symbiartic/2012/03/19/pinterests-terms-of-service-word-by-terrifying-word/ Archived] from the original on May 23, 2012. Retrieved March 10, 2025.</ref> to:<blockquote>By making available any Member Content through the Site, Application or Services, you hereby grant to Cold Brew Labs a worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free license, with the right to sublicense, to use, copy, adapt, *modify, distribute, license, sell, transfer, publicly display, publicly perform, transmit, stream, broadcast, access, view, and otherwise exploit such Member Content only on, through or by means of the Site, Application or Services.</blockquote>In simpler terms, this means that any content uploaded to Pinterest can be freely utilized by the platform and its users in any manner. Given the platform's history of hosting content without explicit consent, this raises concerns that creators' works may be overridden in search feeds<ref name=":0" /> and copyrights overridden for unauthorized purposes by other publishers.<ref name=":0" />

 

* [[DeviantArt]]