Steemit Privacy Policy & Terms of Service Deconstructed

A couple of Steemians have discovered the new poorly implemented terms of service popup which appears if you have to log in (not if you're already logged in). Instinctively, we have all been trained to just agree and not even bother reading.

Funnily enough, in a PR here you can see they implemented the popup and then reverted it, then repaired it and released it anyway. A sheer display of embarrassing incompetence.

Well, I decided to read what exactly Steemit updated in their terms of service and privacy policy agreements. If you weren't able to read them because the popup obscures the text, the privacy policy is here and terms of service here.

The updates to the privacy policy appear to be related to the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which recently came into effect. And while they're a European initiative, most sites apply the changes to all users.

We won't focus too much on the privacy policy because it's basic and nothing really new has changed you need to know about except GDPR related stuff mostly (discussed below).

INFORMATION CHOICES AND CHANGES

You may access information that you have voluntarily provided through your account on the Services, and to review, correct, or delete it by sending a request to [email protected]

It says that you can access the information you've provided through your account on Steemit and correct or delete it by sending a request to the aforementioned email address. Considering Steem is an immutable blockchain, I wonder if Steemit Inc actually has the ability to truly remove content from the blockchain to comply with GDPR regulations?

NOTICE TO EU DATA SUBJECTS

Under this section, there are the legislated requirements for GDPR compliance and I've pulled out the interesting pieces again:

• Delete. Delete your personal information.
• Restrict. Restrict the processing of your personal information.

Once again, is it possible to truly have your data deleted from the Steem blockchain or just not visible in the UI? Because hiding the reference is not the same as deleting it and in violation of a GDPR request to have your data deleted. You can't even delete your Steem account, let alone anything you post here.

Terms of Service

The privacy policy was expectedly just surrounding the recent GDPR changes, let's get into the meat and potatoes of the changes in the Steemit Terms of Service.

The section I really want to talk about is point #5 titled trademarks.

"Steem", "Steemit", "SMTs", the Steemit logo and any other product or service names, logos or slogans that may appear on Steemit are trademarks of the Company and may not be copied, imitated or used, in whole or in part, without our prior written permission.

Although Steem is a blockchain controlled by the users and witnesses (to an extent), it's easy to forget that Steemit Inc is a business and that business like any other business will protect its own interests through trademarks.

Interestingly the trademarks section lists the following as Steemit trademarks:

• Steem
• Steemit
• SMTs
• The Steemit logo
• and any other product or service names, logos or slogans that may appear on Steemit

I am honestly surprised that STINC was able to even trademark the term "Steem" given it is very similar to that of Steam which is a large online gaming client and service provided by Valve for allowing users to buy and play online games (maybe it's the application that allows it).

This means technically every time you use any of those trademarked terms in a post, an image or video you're opening yourself up to the possibility that Steemit Inc could send a bunch of lawyers knocking on your door for trademark violation.

Look, it's highly unlikely that they would do that. But in terms of the legal language being used, it allows them to do it if they wanted to.

They also continue on with other trademark speak:

You may not use any metatags or other “hidden text” utilizing “Steemit” or any other name, trademark or product or service name of Steemit without our prior written permission

In addition, the look and feel of Steemit, including, without limitation, all page headers, custom graphics, button icons and scripts, constitute the service mark, trademark or trade dress of Steemit and may not be copied, imitated or used, in whole or in part, without our prior written permission

Steemit has one of the worse user interfaces I have ever seen or used. But this section is interesting from the perspective of alternative UI clients popping up. If STINC feels as though X client for the Steem blockchain looks similar and they want to pursue it, they can theoretically have you shut down.

So if you're planning on creating your own Steem client and you think you can just leverage existing UI assets like the upvote or flagging icons, you're technically violating Steemit's terms and making yourself liable.

Briefly under point #11 "Fees for Using the Steemit Services" it reads:

Company Fees Creating an Account. The Company does not currently charge fees for any Services, however, we reserve the right to do so in future, and in such case any applicable fees will be displayed prior to you using any Service to which a fee applies.

Maybe this is just lawyer mumbo jumbo, but I find it interesting that Steemit Inc felt the need to mention they do not currently charge fees but "reserve the right to do so in the future" would STINC ever charge fees for services and more importantly, if they did, would people pay or just leave?

Point #13 "Discontinuation of Services"

We may, in our sole discretion and without cost to you, with or without prior notice and at any time, modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, any portion of our Services. You are solely responsible for storing, outside of the Services, a backup of any Account and Private Key pair that you maintain in your Account.

Translation: it's your responsibility to ensure that you have a backup of your account and data because Steemit Inc reserves the right to shut this site down without providing any notice and at anytime

Once again, this reads like a standard legal boilerplate item. But it does remind you that Steemit and Steem are two different things and Steemit could be discontinued at any time (especially if STINC focuses on SMTs).

Point #15 "User Conduct"

This section gave me a good chuckle because STINC has no control over its own network, it's the witnesses and users (to an extent).

Use of our Services in any manner that could interfere with, disrupt, negatively affect or inhibit other users from fully enjoying our Services, or that could damage, disable, overburden or impair the functioning of our Services in any manner;

This section is so vaguely written, you could apply a whole bunch of different actions to this one paragraph. More specifically, you could argue that users who abuse voting bots, the flagging system or self-upvoting to steal from the reward pool are classified under, "inhibit other users from fully enjoying our Services"

Use our Services to pay for, support or otherwise engage in any activity prohibited by law, including, but not limited to illegal gambling, fraud, money-laundering, or terrorist financing activities.

The illegal gambling term is interesting, do user-run initiatives such as sweepstakes, guessing competitions and betting on outcomes classify as gambling? Is it illegal gambling if it's only dealing specifically in STEEM or STEEM Backed Dollars (SBD)?

Conclusion

Everything seems to read like a standard TOS and Privacy Policy. There are interesting tidbits in there that remind us that Steemit and other various terms are trademarks and if @ned and co wanted to take you down for using these trademarks in a way they don't agree with, they can.

Perhaps the biggest question I am left with is: mentions of being able to terminate accounts and delete data, particular user requests under GDPR, is that even possible? Can content truly be deleted from the Steem blockchain? Because I've always been under the impression that it cannot be truly deleted.

Image source Pixabay.