Does WeTransfer use your files to train AI? What the July 2025 terms said
What clause 6.3 of WeTransfer's July 2025 terms actually granted, what was removed after the backlash, and what to look for in any file-transfer service's terms.
In July 2025 WeTransfer updated its terms of service. Within hours, photographers, illustrators and editors were sharing screenshots of clause 6.3, and lawyers were advising clients to stop uploading.
What the clause said
The July text granted WeTransfer a licence to "reproduce, distribute, modify" and "publicly display" uploaded files, "including to improve performance of machine learning models that enhance our content moderation process".
Read narrowly, that's about using files to train a moderation classifier. Read broadly, it's a licence to do almost anything with a customer's work, and creative professionals read it broadly, because their livelihood is the work.
What happened next
On 15 July 2025 WeTransfer told the BBC it "does not use machine learning or any form of AI to process content shared via WeTransfer, nor does it sell content or data to any third parties". It rewrote 6.3 to a licence "to use your Content for the purposes of operating, developing, and improving the Service, all in accordance with our Privacy & Cookie Policy", effective 8 August 2025.
The fix was fast. The memory wasn't. Every "WeTransfer alternative" thread since then mentions it.
What to look for in any service's terms
- Scope of licence. "Operate the service" is normal (they need to store and transmit your bytes). "Modify", "distribute", "publicly display", "derivative works" and "machine learning" are not needed to deliver a file.
- Whether the promise is structural or a policy. A policy can change in a terms update. Client-side (end-to-end) encryption makes the promise physical: the service can't read what it can't decrypt.
- Where the data lives and under whose law. EU-owned providers on EU soil are outside the US CLOUD Act; US providers with EU data centres are not.
- Notice for changes. How many days, and where it's announced.
Where Honestfiles stands
The Trust Charter says it in one line: your files are used to deliver your files, nothing else. Files are stored encrypted on EU-owned servers, deleting erases the bytes, and any tightening of a promise is announced 60 days ahead. Client-side encryption, which would make the promise verifiable rather than trusted, is the first item on the roadmap.
Questions people ask
- Did WeTransfer train AI on uploaded files?
- WeTransfer says it did not and does not. The July 2025 terms contained language that could have permitted it; that language was removed on 15 July 2025.
- What did the July 2025 clause say?
- Clause 6.3 granted WeTransfer a licence to reproduce, distribute, modify and publicly display uploaded content, including to improve machine-learning models used for content moderation.
- What do the terms say now?
- A royalty-free licence to use content 'for the purposes of operating, developing, and improving the Service', effective 8 August 2025 for existing users.