The digital note-taking service was supposed to implement changes in its privacy policy come January 23, 2017. The proposed changes were received with highly critical views from users who felt it was wrong and violates consumer rights.
In a blog post last week, the company acknowledged they have taken "missteps" in wanting to make the app better for everyone and apologized for the poor way the matter has been handled and communicated.
ZDNet reported that people were initially outraged by the update because the company will allow its employees to access user content and read through their notes in an "effort to improve the service". The process was designed to ensure that Evernote's machine learning technologies were working properly.
While the company reassured users that personnel who will be granted access to their personal content will be carefully selected and subject to thorough background checks and evaluations, Evernote users are not happy with it. Some took to social media their displeasure and vocally expressed terminating the service if they were left with no choice.
In the middle of this hot mess, Evernote CEO Chris O'Neill reaffirmed that, "We announced a change to our privacy policy that made it seem like we didn't care about the privacy of our customers or their notes. This was not our intent, and our customers let us know that we messed up, in no uncertain terms. We heard them, and we're taking immediate action to fix it."
In a nutshell, machine learning technologies allow the app to process data better and recognize an app user's pattern and habits and display related content when needed. In order to train the software, Evernote personnel would need to go through users' notes to identify basic writing patterns that the company can use to 'train' the software so it could learn to perform tasks automatically.
Fortune warned that machine learning doesn't work with a flick of a switch and Evernote may have to do some 'data cleaning' to make sure that the app is working properly.
While machine learning can possibly offer more convenience for Evernote users in the future, if it were allowed to move an inch further but O'Neill recognizes this isn't something they can push without the permission and consent of Evernote users.