Are You Opting Out of Tumblr Allowing Third Party AI Model's to Train on Your Data?
Yes
No
I hadn't heard of this before, but now I'll opt out
Show me the results!
I'm planning on abandoning tumblr and deleting my blogs
Other (please explain in the tags)
Voting ended onMar 5, 2024
From instructions on how to opt out, look at the official staff post on the topic. It also gives more information on Tumblr's new policies. If you are opting out, remember to opt out each separate blog individually.
Please reblog this post, so it will get more votes!
FYI artists and writers: some info regarding tumblr's new "third-party sharing" (aka selling your content to OpenAI and Midjourney)
You may have already seen the post by @staff regarding third-party sharing and how to opt out. You may have also already seen various news articles discussing the matter.
But here's a little further clarity re some questions I had, and you may too. Caveat: Not all of this is on official tumblr pages, so it's possible things may change.
(1) "I heard they already have access to my data and it doesn't really matter if I opt out"
From the 404 article:
A new FAQ section we reviewed is titled “What happens when you opt out?” states “If you opt out from the start, we will block crawlers from accessing your content by adding your site on a disallowed list. If you change your mind later, we also plan to update any partners about people who newly opt-out and ask that their content be removed from past sources and future training.”
So please, go click that opt-out button.
(2) Some future user: "I've been away from tumblr for months, and I just heard about all this. I didn't opt out before, so does it make a difference anymore?"
Another internal document shows that, on February 23, an employee asked in a staff-only thread, “Do we have assurances that if a user opts out of their data being shared with third parties that our existing data partners will be notified of such a change and remove their data?”
Andrew Spittle, Automattic’s head of AI replied: “We will notify existing partners on a regular basis about anyone who's opted out since the last time we provided a list. I want this to be an ongoing process where we regularly advocate for past content to be excluded based on current preferences. We will ask that content be deleted and removed from any future training runs. I believe partners will honor this based on our conversations with them to this point. I don't think they gain much overall by retaining it.”
It should make a difference! Go click that button.
(3) "I opted out, but my art posts have been reblogged by so many people, and I don't know if they all opted out. What does that mean for my stuff?"
This answer is actually on the support page for the toggle:
This option will prevent your blog's content, even when reblogged, from being shared with our licensed network of content and research partners, including those that train AI models.
And some further clarification by the COO and a product manager:
zingring: A couple people from work have reached out to let me know that yes, it applies to reblogs of "don't scrape" content. If you opt out, your content is opted out, even in reblog form.
cyle: yep, for reblogs, we're taking it so far as "if anybody in the reblog trail has opted out, all of the content in that reblog will be opted out", when a reblog could be scraped/shared.
So not only your reblogged posts, but anyone who contributed in a reblog (such as posts where someone has been inspired to draw fanart of the OP) will presumably be protected by your opt-out. (A good reason to opt out even if you yourself are not a creator.)
Furthermore, if you the OP were offline and didn't know about the opt-out, if someone contributed to a reblog and they are opted out, then your original work is also protected. (Which makes it very tempting to contribute "scrapeable content" now whenever I reblog from an abandoned/disused blog...)
(4) "What about deleted blogs? They can't opt out!"
I was told by someone (not official) that he read "deleted blogs are all opted-out by default". However, he didn't recall the source, and I can't find it, so I can't guarantee that info. If I get more details - like if/when tumblr puts up that FAQ as reported in the 404 article - I will add it here as soon as I can.
Edit, tumblr has updated their help page for the option to opt-out of third-party sharing! It now states:
The content which will not be shared with our licensed network of content and research partners, including those that train AI models, includes:
• Posts and reblogs of posts from blogs who have enabled the "Prevent third-party sharing" option.
• Posts and reblogs of posts from deleted blogs.
• Posts and reblogs of posts from password-protected blogs.
• Posts and reblogs of posts from explicit blogs.
• Posts and reblogs of posts from suspended/deactivated blogs.
• Private posts.
• Drafts.
• Messages.
• Asks and submissions which have not been publicly posted.
• Post+ subscriber-only posts.
• Explicit posts.
So no need to worry about your old deleted blogs that still have reblogs floating around. *\o/*
But for your existing blogs, please use the opt out option. And a reminder of how to opt out, under the cut:
The opt-out toggle is in Blog Settings, and please note you need to do it for each one of your blogs / sideblogs.
On dashboard, the toggle is at https://www.tumblr.com/settings/blog/blogname [replace "blogname" as applicable] down by Visibility:
For mobile, you need the most recent update of the app. (Android version 33.4.1.100, iOs version 33.4.) Then go to your blog tab (the little person icon), and then the gear icon for Settings, then click Visibility.
Again, if you have a sideblog, go back to the blog tab, switch to it, and go to settings again. Repeat as necessary.
If you do not have access to the newest version of the app for whatever reason, you can also log into tumblr in your mobile browser. Same URL as per desktop above, same location.
Note you do not need to change settings in both desktop and the app, just one is fine.
With recent events on Tumblr, people are looking for new places to go, and my top pick is Pillowfort. Out of all the other social sites popping up in the last few years, this is the one I’m most supportive of. So let me tell you why you should join, complete with pros and cons.
Pillowfort has an explicitly Anti-AI stance.
While preventing bots from scraping user content for AI purposes is difficult and some may argue impossible, Pillowfort still does what it can to prevent it from happening.
On top of those efforts, AI content is explicitly prohibited on their site. You will not find AI “art” or “writing” there.
They will not sell your data.
From their privacy policy, Pillowfort states that “Pillowfort does not now, nor will it in the future, sell our user information to third-parties.”
They are user funded.
This means that unlike many social sites, you are NOT the product!
The benefit of this is that they do not have to bow to shareholders! Site users and their experience is the top priority.
The negative to this is that it means some users do need to donate or subscribe to Pillowfort Premium to help them reach the numbers they need to continue adding features to the site.
They aim to be financially independent so they will never have to put profit over the soul of their project.
Staff is very transparent at every step of the way.
Speaking of being user funded, they have a budget breakdown on their donations page so you know exactly where your donations are going.
They interact with users often through things like reblogging helpful posts. They also value user feedback and seem to take it very seriously.
They have a list of known bugs as well as previous bugs that have been fixed. This post also includes a list of goals for future features. So you can easily see what they’ve done and what they’re currently working on for the site.
They allow NSFW.
It really feels like Tumblr pre-2018. NSFW content is very much welcomed there, but they also have the option to toggle NSFW content off so you can avoid it completely if you want.
Tags actually work!
Unlike Tumblr’s frustrating tagging system that makes it difficult to find what you’re actually looking for, Pillowfort’s system is straightforward.
When you search a tag, the only posts that come up are ones with that tag. It’s not looking at text in the body of the post to include in the search.
Tags are easy to blacklist! Unlike Tumblr, when you don’t want to see a certain tag or content, black listing fully hides the content from you.
When you blacklist it you won’t see it at all. No more “show this post” popping up on your feed.
The community is welcoming.
The community is small, but it is friendly. People are excited to see new users join and are eager to answer questions and help out.
They often make guides for new users to answer FAQs and give helpful tips.
There’s also communities dedicated to helping people navigate the site and its culture.
Community as a whole is integral to Pillowfort. Commenting culture is very much encouraged as talking in tags isn’t useful on the site. Connecting with people in communities (similar to subreddits) is a fun part of the site and how you build connections and an active feed.
It’s “quiet” in the good way
It’s low to no drama over there. Instead of arguments and callout posts, people simply block and move on. This kind of “live and let live” attitude amongst users makes for a low stress environment.
This does mean that if you’re someone who tends to have long DNIs and participates in discourse like anti/proship arguments, you’ll likely be blocked very frequently. Do with that information what you will.
Now for some drawbacks…
Every site will have its pros and cons. Fortunately for Pillowfort, the major cons are ones that I believe will be resolved in time. It will just take more users joining and supporting the project!
It’s small.
There are over 150,000 users on the site, as opposed to tumblrs millions, and only a portion of them are active.
You’re not going to have super active tags with endless scrolling. There are some tags that may seem common on Tumblr but don’t have a single post on Pillowfort.
HOWEVER-
This means that by joining and bringing your hobbies, passions, and fandoms along with you, you’re helping to build a community from the ground up!
There is not currently an app
Emphasis on CURRENTLY. One is in the works and it’s pretty high on their priority list.
Mobile has some bugs and isn’t as smooth as desktop, but it still works! And with a little patience it’s not really a problem.
In Conclusion
It’s a small site without a ton of action right now, but community is a major focus of the site! As more active users join and begin participating in the site culture, I believe it will flourish. But for that to happen, people have to join!
If you’re someone who is willing to sacrifice the convenience that comes with popular social media sites in favor of a passionate project that values its users, then this is the place for you.
If you’d like to join, there is a waitlist, though it is very short and sometimes nearly instantaneous. But there’s also people often giving out invite codes! There’s some in the Pillowfort tag on Tumblr and I also have a couple dozen I can give out to anyone who wants one.
Overall, there’s a lot of room for growth on Pillowfort, but I for one am happy to buckle up and come along for the ride and I hope to see more of ya’ll join too,
Remember to turn this on because it’s not turned on by default!! You also have to go and do it for every individual side blog which is annoying as hell.
While you’re at it, however—one way to fuck with his whole thing would be to create random blogs you never intend to use and then just post incomprehensible stuff. (aka keyboard smashes or just a bunch of random words that don’t make sense) Doing this will deplete the quality of the AI if you let them take the data from THOSE blogs.
ALSO EDIT FOR THOSE WHO CAN’T FIND IT ON MOBILE: scroll all the way down in blog settings. It’s around the bottom-ish.
In light of the current shit with tumblr making us opt-out of sharing our blogs with AI scrapers, I checked the state of Wordpress for this and, not surprisingly since it's the same company, you need to opt out there too.
If you have a wordpress-blog of the NAME.wordpress.com kind, you need to go into Settings and under the section Privacy, hit the checkmark for "Prevent third-party sharing for NAME.wordpress.com".
I know some of us here at writeblr have secondary blogs on wordpress, so make sure to opt-out of AI scraping there.
