【bell hooks eros, eroticism, and the pedagogical process】

Evernote CEO Chris O'Neill was put on bell hooks eros, eroticism, and the pedagogical processthe defensive Thursday as he was forced to explain his company's new privacy policy following a backlash from users.

In an update posted on Evernote's blog Thursday, O'Neill said the company had "communicated poorly" about the changes and attempted to clarify the more controversial parts of the policy, which allows Evernote employees to access user notes.

"Privacy has always been at the heart of Evernote, and we’re as committed as ever to upholding our Three Laws of Data Protection," he wrote, referring to the company's internal policy around how it handles user data.

Evernote users have been up in arms ever since the company's updated privacy policy -- set to kick off in January 2017 -- added a vaguely worded clause that Evernote employees would be able to view portions of users' notes, as part of Evernote's efforts to bolster the company's machine learning abilities.

Still, O'Neill defended the new policy saying the company's move to machine learning was necessary to "make our users even more productive" and that this type of technology only works with some human oversight.

From the policy:

The latest update to the Privacy Policy allows some Evernote employees to exercise oversight of machine learning technologies applied to account content, subject to the limits described below, for the purposes of developing and improving the Evernote service.

This is primarily to make sure that our machine learning technologies are working correctly, in order to surface the most relevant content and features to you. While our computer systems do a pretty good job, sometimes a limited amount of human review is simply unavoidable in order to make sure everything is working exactly as it should.

Unsurprisingly, privacy conscious users aren't happy about the idea of Evernote employees being able to read their notes.

"Select Evernote employees may see random content to ensure the features are working properly but they won’t know who it belongs to," O'Neill explained Thursday. "They’ll only see the snippet they’re checking. Not only that, but if a machine identifies any personal information, it will mask it from the employee."

The company is also providing an opt-out feature, but it only applies to the service's machine learning capabilities, not to the ability of employees to view your notes.

Again, from their policy (emphasis our own):

While we think machine learning is a great tool that will help you get the most out of your Evernote experience, we understand that not everyone feels the same way. If you would prefer to opt out of machine learning technologies on your content (including some which require some human review for oversight purposes), you can do so in your account settings, where it says, “Allow Evernote to use my data to improve my experience.” If you do opt out, however, you may not be able to get the most out of your Evernote experience. And please note that you cannot opt out of employees looking at your content for other reasons stated in our Privacy Policy (under the section, "Does Evernote Share My Personal Information or Content?").

Writing Thursday, O'Neill attempted to assuage users' concerns, saying,"Evernote employees do not view the content of user notes except in very limited cases."

"Like other internet companies, we must comply with legal requirements such as responding to a warrant, investigating violations of our Terms of Service such as reports of harmful or illegal content, and troubleshooting at the request of users. The number of employees who are authorized to view this content is extremely limited by our existing policies, and I am personally involved in defining them."

Though some users appear to be satisfied with the CEO's additional explanation, many more were still concerned.

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For those who want to leave, Evernote has a guide to deactivating your account and moving your notes to a new service. The new privacy policy goes into effect Jan. 23, 2017.