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:

Keep reading

death-of-cats:

WORST husband in main series ASOIAF?

Robert Baratheon

Stannis Baratheon

Roose Bolton

Khal Drogo

Balon Greyjoy

Hizdahr zo Loraq

Eddard Stark

Robb Stark

Edmure Tully

Not an exhaustive list, obviously. Limiting this to options that have wives that make an on-page appearance and have at least one line of dialogue; not including marriages with questionable validity because of lack of consummation (Tommen, Tyrion) or assumed identity (Ramsay).

knightsickness:

the scene in acok where dany says im sad about everyone ive ever known dying but i dont mean to complain what about you ser jorah who have you lost? and jorah starts listing every woman he’s ever terrorised w spin to make it their faults intercut w lines about him staring at dany’s shoulders and breasts. and dany who has never seen a good relationship in her life is like ohh that sounds awful youve suffered so .. GET A JOB stay away from her

#when he tells her his first wife died in miscarriage but it’s whatever he didn’t even like her that much (and she wasn’t even that hot) (via @napoleonicanimus)

#jorah being like i felt so sad being exiled for slave trading 😔 #but i had to my wife was a money grabbing Bitch. haha thinking about it she looks just like u weird 👀 #and dany being like that’s so messed up omg </3 fuck that guy usurper’s dog. ily but ur old can you like. back up a bit? no worries if not (via @sunflowersansa)

knightsickness:

barristans chapters in adwd so funny bc he says firmly to himself that the worst possible thing a kingsguard can do is play the game of thrones and ten minutes later hes arrested the king and instated himself

dedalvs:

Lexember (December 23rd)

Today’s Valyrian glyph is jenys “glass”. lol I only managed one word on this because the quote is so long. I guess I could’ve only done the second sentence, but I liked the first one so much. I had to throw them both in. If you want to say something is made of glass, you use the adjectival form jenenka.

calirph:

𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐒𝐒 𝐑𝐇𝐀𝐄𝐍𝐀 𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐀𝐑𝐘𝐄𝐍

marroon/burgandy dress. details.

calirph:

𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐑𝐇𝐀𝐄𝐍𝐘𝐑𝐀 𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐀𝐑𝐘𝐄𝐍

laena’s funeral overcoat and gown, black and red with golden trims. 1x07.

tomapoganka:

mother of dragons, mother of monsters