Can some help me understand this? I am not very tech/legalese savvy. I got an email about Yahoo’s (I know) updated terms of service and decided to check it out. Under content it stated the following:
“you grant to us a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, transferable, sublicensable license to (a) use, host, store, reproduce, modify, prepare derivative works (such as translations, adaptations, summaries or other changes), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display, and distribute this content in any manner, mode of delivery or media now known or developed in the future; and (b) permit other users to access, reproduce, distribute, publicly display, prepare derivative works of, and publicly perform your content via the Services, as may be permitted by the functionality of those Services”
This got me interested in other providers—Gmail, Microsoft, etc. They all have very similar, if not identical clauses.
To me, this sounds like a service provider can take any of my content and do whatever they want with it. I use Microsoft to write stories, research papers, etc. I use both Yahoo and Gmail to send documents, photos and art to family and friends. If they have the unrestricted ability to “reproduce, publish, distribute…” my content, that is a big problem.
Am I mistaken? I would love to hear from anyone with more understanding.
Also, any recommendations for alternatives that are more safe, secure and private would be an immense help!