, 12 tweets, 3 min read Read on Twitter
Here's a summary of why Grammarly are predatory and why you should avoid them. I am not a lawyer™. This is my layman reading, but they are pretty explicit about a lot of these practices. Posting because I've seen a lot of people oblivious to what they're signing away.
Grammarly *IS* a keylogger. They try to dodge it by saying "Grammarly accesses only the text you write while using our product"
But if you use the browser extension, then that means every single bit of text you type (excluding passwords, credit card forms, and sites you disable). That is all sent to them.
Now they do need to send your text to their backend to process it. But did you know they save all the text you send? Forever?
Here is where they mention in their Privacy Policy that they save all text processed: grammarly.com/privacy-policy…
They also reserve the right to view your text to "to improve our algorithms", or if they "think" you break their ToS. Since they have all your content they are also required to disclose it to law enforcement if necessary.
More weirdly "Your Information may be viewed where necessary to protect the rights, property, or personal safety of Grammarly". Whatever that means? Again, this is all taken straight from their Privacy Policy. grammarly.com/privacy-policy…
They also give themselves a "a nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty-free and fully-paid, transferable and sublicensable, perpetual, and irrevocable license to copy, store and use your User Content". See for yourself in their ToS: grammarly.com/terms#user-con…
It's unclear if they categorize "user content" (eg. your text) as personal data. The privacy policy seems to use two different terms. Again, I am not a lawyer™. Would appreciate references or confirmation from someone who knows what they're talking about.
Hopefully GDPR would force them to remove it when requested, but unclear if the user content is included. Again, they aren't specific. They would likely refuse GDPR requests for non-Europeans anyway.
So to summarize: Grammarly admit to saving all processed text, giving themselves a license to do with it literally whatever they want, are unclear about deletion, and by storing your text they have to disclose it to law enforcement if requested.
You can decide if the trade-off are worth it. It's not for me, and it's probably not for you. Muting this thread now lol
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