Google has struck a deal with Reddit that will allow the search engine maker to train its AI models on Reddit’s vast catalog of user-generated content, the two companies announced. Under the arrangement, Google will get access to Reddit’s Data API, which will help the company “better understand” content from the site.
The deal also provides Google with a valuable source of content it can use to train its AI models. “Google will now have efficient and structured access to fresher information, as well as enhanced signals that will help us better understand Reddit content and display, train on, and otherwise use it in the most accurate and relevant ways,” the company said in a statement.
If you are posting on walled-garden big tech site like Reddit, Instagram, Twitter / X, the site and therefore the company certainly owns your content and all the metadata attributed to it. You’re the product. This is why most of us are here on the Fediverse where things are different. Maybe if it’s your personal photo you took than you can make a copyright claim to some degree and download your data tediously but once it’s on their network it’s generally theirs to do as they please, whether that be sell to Google or any other advertiser or use on in-house advertising. Often without proper informed consent and not always legally. It’s definitely a scam, I agree. Hopefully this exposes it more and brings more people to places on the Fediverse where there’s no owner/seller/buyer of your data or anything else you contributed.