ChrisR
I'm a well known grump...
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- Name
- Chris
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Many on here will remember the furore in 2017 when Photobucket, a photo hosting site once used by quite a lot of t'internets, suddenly started demanding payment for hosting images (£299 a year IIRC). Eventually we went through stages where if you didn't pay, images were available with a massive banner across them, then later replaced by a clock, and then I don't know what. I never did pay, nor agreed to the changes in their terms of service.
However, it appears they are up to it again. I was alerted on photog.social that they are changing their terms of service as of tomorrow (22 July 2024), and if you continue to "use" their services you agreeing to the new terms, which include among other things a new Biometric Information Policy. This post on another site quotes from the new T&Cs and discusses the changes (https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/photobucket-new-terms-of-use.324641/). Allegedly they want to sell your images on their site to AI companies, yada-yada. The only way (supposedly) to stop this happening is to delete your account.
I wasn't happy about PB's plans, so decided I would delete my account. I still had the login details, so set about the process. Trying to log in was foiled at first, because they require you to accept their Terms of Service before logging in! However, eventually I found a button that said basically, carry on and delete the account anyway. I think I went round that a couple of times before it finally accepted and deleted my account.
In retrospect it might have been smart to login first and delete all my images. They promise that account deletion does delete the images, but who'd trust them? OTOH I'd have to accept the new T&Cs to do that. So I've had a look at very old TP posts that did contain PB-based images, and they do appear to have gone... or at least, links to them don't resolve any more!
However, it appears they are up to it again. I was alerted on photog.social that they are changing their terms of service as of tomorrow (22 July 2024), and if you continue to "use" their services you agreeing to the new terms, which include among other things a new Biometric Information Policy. This post on another site quotes from the new T&Cs and discusses the changes (https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/photobucket-new-terms-of-use.324641/). Allegedly they want to sell your images on their site to AI companies, yada-yada. The only way (supposedly) to stop this happening is to delete your account.
I wasn't happy about PB's plans, so decided I would delete my account. I still had the login details, so set about the process. Trying to log in was foiled at first, because they require you to accept their Terms of Service before logging in! However, eventually I found a button that said basically, carry on and delete the account anyway. I think I went round that a couple of times before it finally accepted and deleted my account.
In retrospect it might have been smart to login first and delete all my images. They promise that account deletion does delete the images, but who'd trust them? OTOH I'd have to accept the new T&Cs to do that. So I've had a look at very old TP posts that did contain PB-based images, and they do appear to have gone... or at least, links to them don't resolve any more!
