Takeaway Points Using online services, grants those services rights to inspect, read, replay, perform, copy, sub-license, monetize, and store YOUR intellectual property, anywhere in the world, subject to laws in other countries. That should be chilling to any media/content producer. While still reasonably unlikely, consider some edge cases here.

There are slight variations in legal language, but you are granting copyrights to your service providers. In case it is not clear who “service providers” are, they are your phone company and all the apps you use, like Facebook, Apple, Google, TikTok, etc. Basically, everything you interact with in the digital world.

The implication that your intellectual property or personal information can be legally used by others or be used against you cannot be overstated.

Terms of Service The terms of service (TOS) of every service provider run into the tens of pages. Rogers TOS is 27 pages long. Bell Canada TOS is only 18 pages long. These documents are only the starting point, because in all cases they refer to Data Retention Policies and Privacy Policies elsewhere, meaning that these lengthy documents are only the tip of the iceberg. For reference, here are excerpts from various terms of service. Keep in mind, you have agreed to these things.

Apple (read Data Policy here)

  • Apple may share personal data with Apple-affiliated companies, service providers who act on our behalf, our partners, developers, and publishers
  • your personal data may be transferred to or accessed by entities around the world
  • Apple collects details relating to your fitness and exercise, financial Information, including salary, income, and assets

Google and YouTube

When you use Google, YouTube, and any Google service you grant a worldwide copyright license to Google. This license allows Google to:

  • reproduce, distribute, communicate, and use your content
  • publish, publicly perform, or publicly display your content
  • modify and create derivative works based on your content
  • sublicense these rights

So they can sublicense your content and make money off of it, even if you didn’t !

Rogers Communications

  • We have the right … to monitor or investigate any content that is transmitted using the Services
  • we will collect your current and historical personal location information associated with any device you use … and share it with our agents, dealers and related companies, or trusted third parties
  • Account and personal information about our customers may be stored or processed in or outside Canada.

The larger the organization, the less information they claim to share. Rogers talks about it’s affiliates, like Yahoo and other advertisers, but Bell will only share your data with other “Bell” companies. That sounds like they don’t share as much as Rogers. They qualify this by saying “including the following” 13 companies**, which, in legal terms does not limit the sharing to only these 13 companies. They are reserving the right to share with other companies. Draw your own conclusions, but we suggest that is contradictory to the notion that they do not share your data.

Apple makes similar claims but with quite a few legal loopholes. The idea at play here is that Apple is so large, and a hardware manufacturer, they don’t need to share your information with anybody. Bravo! Right? Well, probably not. If they don’t share your data with other companies, then why do they say “Apple may share personal data with Apple-affiliated companies, service providers who act on our behalf, our partners, developers, and publishers?”. Their legal page reveals, 85 categories of data gathered.

An open question remains, if the largest technology company in the world collects highly detailed metrics on all aspects of your life, your bank accounts, what you search on, what you buy, what sites you visit and read, what apps you use, your sexual preferences, your geo location, where you go and when you go there, detailed health information about what you like to eat, how much sleep you’re getting, any medications you are on, your menstrual cycles, etc. What do they do with it? Is it really in your best interests to give away every last detail of your personal information to a single company? You certainly would want to keep such a remarkable amount of personal information private. It leads to some uncomfortable questions.

This is reminiscent of how WhatsApp “protects” your privacy. Without any doubt they don’t listen to your calls or even read your text messages. They can’t, because they store your messages using verifiably secure encryption. On the other hand, there is no need to listen to or read your messages. What they gather is actually more valuable than the contents of your messages: who you communicate with. This metadata is on par with DNS traffic for the value and insight it provides.

Foreign superpowers or domestic law enforcement agencies are probably not the biggest threat to your online privacy. There is no need for the domestic agencies to build out their own surveillance networks. As revealed by Edward Snowden and now others, the Prism Project in the USA is known to collect data from over 180 American companies, so there is literally no need for these agencies to “do it yourself”. Beyond even that, it is estimated that the domestic western agencies have a pocket full of zero day exploits that would be able to penetrate nearly any security measures. It seems rational to accept that the most determined and capable actors would probably be able to get what they want.

Should I believe that Apple protects my privacy? Their terms of service state “Apple may share personal data with Apple-affiliated companies, service providers who act on our behalf, our partners, developers, and publishers”. Also, under search warrant, any data that Apple has captured can be accessed online by authorized law enforcement. Does Apple protect your privacy? What do you think?

The true threat to your privacy are your service providers! You gave them the copyrights to your intellectual property and personal information when you began using their services. It’s also quite clear at this point that these very large companies are willing to breach their own policies when it suits them. All in all, you must see your current service provider as the threat that you want to protect against.

** From the Bell Canada Terms of Service, 2022 In this Commitment to Privacy, the words “we”, “us”, “our” and “Companies” refers to the Bell family of companies and brands as they exist over time, including: Bell Aliant, Bell Canada, Bell ExpressVu LP (Bell Satellite TV), Bell Media, Bell Mobility, Bell MTS, Cablevision du Nord, DMTS, KMTS, NorthernTel, Ontera, Solo Mobile and Télébec.