AMA 62: The Evernote terms seem to have changed. What does this mean for me?
This week on Ask Me Anything about Evernote we have a question from Rich.
If you have a question you’d love an answer to then leave it in the comments below and I’ll add it to the list.
Rick asks
I’ve had a message on my Home page about changes to the Evernote terms and conditions. What does this mean for me? Will it change billing?
At the start of the year a pop up appeared on the Evernote ‘Home’ page with some changes to the terms. This is what it looked like.
It’s just corporate stuff. No changes to how billing works or to the operations of Evernote itself.
It looks like Bending Spoons Operations S.p.A which is the official name of the Italian company that owns Evernote have created a new entity for doing business in the US called Bending Spoons US Inc. I would imagine this is a part of the main company.
Evernote Corporation which was the company name for Evernote has now been merged into Bending Spoons Inc.
The “other minor changes” part of the pop up message refers to the recent payment plan name changes. These have been updated in the terms.
Interestingly, I’ve found some of Bending Spoons other purchases also carrying Bending Spoons US Inc at the bottom of their websites.
So no changes to how Evernote itself works or operates, the change to the terms is just corporate stuff that’s way above my pay grade!
Have a great rest of the week
All the best
Jon
Jon - It is above my pay grade too, but I was interested to look and see what may have changed - I didn't dig into history. I posted this on Stacey Harmon's Academy site:
Being a nerd 🤓, I just read most of the T-o-S & Privacy Policy. Low down in the privacy policy, the following statement appears:
“How do we disclose your data:
“In the event of a merger, sale, or reorganization of all or part of our business, personal data covered by this policy may be transferred in connection with that deal.
“We may disclose personal data covered by this policy with our parents, subsidiaries, and affiliated companies.”
‘Personal data’ is defined as tombstone stuff, not the content of Notes. It also says the data will be stored in the USA, which under the current administration, may be vulnerable – it may not be acceptable to those of us who are not US Citizens or residents.
I recently terminated an account with a different company because (1) it’s increasing use of a.i. was suggesting changes to text which I wrote which would have changed the meaning, and (2) the merger with a larger service company enabled them to share my personal data with all the other subsidiaries; many I would never want to use or with which I did not wish to share my data. The same thing happened to a ‘secure’ password company, merged with a larger, wider-ranging entity - so the essential privacy would have been lost (and this after the company was hacked)!
Caveat emptor…