This is a guest contribution from Shelley Murray, Executive Sales Director of Forever
In the hustle and bustle of our digital age, we are often too quick to click the checkmark on the Terms of Service field when signing up for things online. But, have you ever stopped to read the pages and pages of conditions to which you are agreeing?
Our family photos are among our greatest possessions. Yet, we freely upload them to “The Cloud” without even thinking about whether or not they are truly safe there. Over the last 3 years, I have worked with numerous clients, helping them get their photos organized and preserved permanently. I have had first hand experience with Shutterfly, Flicker, MyLife, Google, Amazon, Dropbox, Walgreens, Costco and Apple iCloud. And I’ve been shocked by what I’ve learned about these cloud storage sites. When I outline the three biggest reasons why, my customers are usually just as shocked.
It’s amazing how trusting we tend to be, and how quickly we fall for the word “free”. Lets take a look at these 3 crucial points:
#1 – No Privacy or Security: Digital Rights & Data Mining
This is important. When you upload your photos to these sites, they immediately claim ownership of the digital rights to your photos. To my knowledge, all cloud storage sites are like this, with the exception of Dropbox.
To follow are some excerpts from the Terms of Service from several popular photo storage companies as of Feb. 2016:
Google: “When you upload, submit, store, send or receive content to or through our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host store, reproduce, modify, communicate and publicly display such content.” Also, “Our automated systems analyze your content (including emails). … This analysis occurs as the content is sent, received, and when it is stored.”
Nothing is free!
Membership at these sites is costing you your privacy. Once they own the digital rights to your photos, you become the product that they are selling. Yes, you are both the customer and the product. They are selling your habits, your interests, and your personal information as marketing collateral to large companies. Your information is extremely valuable for these billion dollar companies; it’s how they became billion dollar companies in the first place. The more photos you upload, the more money they make by watching what you do with those photos. A friend of mine uploaded photos to Amazon of her kids playing soccer and wearing Under Armor. Next thing you know, she began receiving all kinds of advertisements from Under Armor. Data-mining your life is the reason why these companies are so profitable and successful.
#2 – No Permanence
Do you trust that your photos will be available on these sites tomorrow? You should. Yet, according to the Terms of Service, there are no guarantees.
iCloud: “Apple may at any time, under certain circumstances and without prior notice, immediately terminate or suspend all or a portion of your Account.”
Shutterfly: “We may terminate your access to our Sites and Apps and to your account at any time, with or without cause, and with or without notice.”
Drop Box: “We also reserve the right to suspend or end the Services at any time at our discretion and without notice.”
In the last 10 years, three photo sites have terminated my account and taken down my photos: Kodak, Creative Memories and most recently Costco. They did give me warning, but I never got around to downloading the photos and double-checking to ensure I had a second copy. Though I am pretty sure that I did have a second copy available digitally, others may not be so lucky. According to the terms of service, this termination can happen without any notice.
#3 – No Succession Plan
What happens to your photos if you die? Will your loved ones know which sites they are store on? What about the passwords? What if you have them stored on a site in which you pay a monthly fee? Will your family know to continue paying that bill for the next 50 years? What happens if your monthly payments are not made? Yes, your account will be terminated. Your photos, taken down. Sadly your photos will not outlive you; none of these sites guarantee a succession plan. Basically, according all of the available Terms of Service, these accounts terminate upon your death and they cannot be transferred to anyone else.
iCloud: “You agree that your Account is non-transferable and that any rights to your Content within your Account terminate upon your death.
The three points I have outlined above are so very important when it comes to deciding where and how you will store your precious family photos. I am not going to leave you here without giving you a solution to this problem. At Forever, we have been busy for the last three years creating a company and pledging Terms of Service that are beneficial to our members. We have taken all of these considerations in mind and have provided the solution that we ourselves would look for in a Terms of Service. My team and I have helped to create a place to keep my own photos permanently, privately, and securely. Yet, I also want to share them with my family and friends and have easy access to them on all my devices. Forever.com meets all of these needs and desires.
Forever.com offers a permanent digital home for your precious photos, documents and soon video. With Forever, you purchase an account and become a member by making a one-time payment (or, if you choose, it can be paid off over time.) Once a member, you own the digital rights to all the content you upload; we do not. We will never sell your information to third parties, your account will never be terminated, and we have instituted a succession plan, so that your future grandchildren and great grandchildren will be able to enjoy your treasured memories.
Think of Forever as a photo insurance company. When you purchase your account, the majority of that money goes right into a fully-restricted fund that is used to maintain your photos on our site. It also pays for any possible file format migrations that may be necessary as technology changes. Right now we normally save our photos as JPEGs, but it will surely be a different, more advanced format in the future. So, 100 years from now, your ancestors will be able to enjoy your photos in whatever format they are using at that time. As you can see, Forever gives you all the tools you need to collect, curate and celebrate all of your treasured memories.
Take a brief 90 Second Look at Forever
Shelley Murray is an avid memory maker and memory keeper. She has always had a love for photos and scrapbook design. As an executive with Forever, she is passionate about sharing their unique mission with others. She has worn many hats at Forever over the last three years. But, her favorite is simply helping others learn how to organize, preserve and enjoy their photos.