Jason KoeblerNEW: Tumblr and Wordpress are preparing to sell user data to Midjourney and OpenAI for AI training, according to internal documentation we've reviewed at 404 Media
https://www.404media.co/tumblr-and-wordpress-to-sell-users-data-to-train-ai-tools/
We've updated this with Automattic's statement, which mentions Tumblr and WordPress.com.
What remains unclear is whether self-hosted WordPress.org sites that use JetPack (which is very popular, connects self-hosted sites to Automattic's infrastructure, and provides them wide latitude to share data with third parties), are subject to sharing agreements
tante@jasonkoebler looking at Jetpack it feels like most features might not make that possible. Akismet (Anti-Spam) still has terms from 2021 that do not talk about handing comments to third parties.
Maybe Jetpack Boost (using Automattic's CDN) could be hijacked that way but just adding JetPack does not given them a license to hand over posts from your site to third parties.
Maybe Jetpack Boost (using Automattic's CDN) could be hijacked that way but just adding JetPack does not given them a license to hand over posts from your site to third parties.
@jasonkoebler But getting confirmation from Automattic would be important of course (if they used Jetpack that way, their credibility would be even more destroyed than now because that would fuck the whole open source project
shellsharks@jasonkoebler Wow. This is bad news for #indieweb folks on WP. Hopefully there's more to this story. But is it ever good news?
Coach Pāṇini ®
Reilly Spitzfaden (they/them)@jasonkoebler @shellsharks and here I was all excited that WordPress/Tumblr connect to/will connect to the Fediverse 🙄
sandywb14
mirabilos@jasonkoebler @atarifrosch evtl. willst Du das Wordpress loswerden
Aurin Azadî@mirabilos @jasonkoebler Welches WordPress? Meine Blogs laufen schon seit ein paar Jahren unter ClassicPress. Ich hoffe doch, daß die sich diesbezüglich besser benehmen können.
Mystery Babylon 
@jasonkoebler The plot thickens...
Nudeln Al Dente 🐘@jasonkoebler Bah! Does anyone have suggestions for (fedi) alternatives to wordpress?
Ash_Crow@NudelnAlDente @jasonkoebler self-hosted Wordpress would be the closest alternative I guess.
Takako 🐀these platforms exist because of their users. If they want to sell the user contents, they need to somehow compensate all users with consent to opt-in. But under unregulated capitalism, they can take what they want for more profit, and the users have no rights because of their TOS. *sigh*
Or we must be collectively overreacting to all AI news… 🙄
Big Kumera Energy
Alex Hyett@jasonkoebler wow. What is it with companies these days? Do they see other companies and think “that’s awful we should do it too”?
Niels🛰️@alex @jasonkoebler they see other companies and think: well, they didn't go bankrupt.
Eris Renée@erosdiscordia gdi, because of course they are.
I finally caught up on the photomatt transphobia bullshit late last night and this morning and it's all just like, wtf.
@Eris People sure do show their asses, don't they?
Especially once they strike a deal with the fash. 💅
@Eris I really appreciated the plausible deniability permeating everything he chose to do and not do, and the tens of DMs and replies the guy sent to mostly trans women, some of whom had not addressed him directly at all. Such a great look! /s
@erosdiscordia Honestly if he didn't start going off in DMs and on birbsite and getting hyper-defensive, and instead explained and apologized for the actions publicly like a fucking normal person, then just left it alone, it'd look way less bad.
Like yeah, some folks would still be mad at him, but fuck. Gotta know when to step back. Instead he outed himself as a transphobe (also I like how his post claiming to not be transphobic is all about adults transitioning and hiding behind queer tumblr workers, while conveniently leaving out teens/kids who are currently being attacked the most)
Emelia 👸🏻@jasonkoebler filed under more absolutely awful decisions that Automattic leadership are making.
Fanfalla 
@jasonkoebler I hate this.
Antranig Vartanian 
the esoteric programmer@jasonkoebler I wish the AI bubble birsting would happen much faster than it currently does
Adam - The Funny Brain@jasonkoebler sorry if this is a daft question, but does this affect hosted wordpress installs? I was tempted to ditch wordpress anyway to be fair, but feared migrating pains
Alison Wilder@TheFunnyBrainGames @jasonkoebler I can't imagine this data grab will be part of the open source WordPress software. That said, the jetpack plug-in has been a back door for all kinds of crazy wordpress.com shit for years, so I wouldn't be surprised if jetpack is sucking data for this purpose soon.
@alisynthesis @jasonkoebler Thank you, that helps a lot :) I initially picked Wordpress because it was open-source, but must admit I wound up using Jetpack for a lot of admin.
I will carry on looking at alternatives, but it's lovely to know there's less of a rush. :)
@TheFunnyBrainGames @jasonkoebler fwiw, there are plenty of replacements (mostly better!) for all the functionality in the Jetpack plugin. If it were me, I'd keep an eye on it to see what happens. Going to the trouble of changing your website's software from open source WP seems a bit of a panic move given what we know at the moment, unless it's something you kinda want to do anyway.
@TheFunnyBrainGames @jasonkoebler Remember that lots of huge and important publishers use WordPress to run their sites. I think the folks at Automattic know that actively sucking data from their open source WP users would be an unmitigated disaster, but I guess we'll see.
Bernard Zijlstra@jasonkoebler @TheFunnyBrainGames nope those are two completely different entities
@bernardzijlstra @jasonkoebler Thank you, that is a relief to know. :)
I will carry on checking out alternatives at a sluggish pace - I still haven't found anything that comes close in terms of tools. :)
Wolfi@TheFunnyBrainGames @jasonkoebler self hosted blogs are not affected, see: https://phpc.social/@stevegrunwell/112005152887711510
Steve Grunwell (@[email protected])
Some important context as this news breaks: #WordPress is an open-source project, available at WordPress.org. One of its co-founders, Matt Mullenweg, is CEO of #Automattic, which runs WordPress.com and owns #Tumblr. They can’t sell what they don’t have, so “WordPress” here refers to WordPress.com, *not* self-hosted WordPress instances. BUT many self-hosted instances use the Jetpack plugin, which does send data to WordPress.com, so that might be sold 🤬 https://mastodon.social/@404mediaco/112004850884204466
LiteralGrill@jasonkoebler Feeling good about my blog being on Neocities right about now...
Mutaito@jasonkoebler
@Plumereine
Ouch. I mean Tumblr, how else can yahoo continue to exist beyond being the secondary email you use for porn?
@Plumereine
Ouch. I mean Tumblr, how else can yahoo continue to exist beyond being the secondary email you use for porn?
Shadowbottle