The company prohibits the use of data for targeted advertising
Reddit has announced a new policy governing the use of data, including a ban on sending ads to users without their consent. The company seeks to increase revenue through licensing agreements with artificial intelligence developers and other companies.
The site's content policy prohibits data licensees from using deleted posts or comments, making that content available to law enforcement, or using posts in a manner that violates intellectual property rights, among other restrictions.
«It is important to formulate guidelines in part because there is a perception that companies licensing Reddit data can do whatever they want with the material», — said Chief Legal Officer Ben Lee.
The company entered into a $60,000,000 licensing agreement with Alphabet Inc.'s Google to help train large language models — technology underlying generative artificial intelligence, — and is in talks with other AI companies.
«They cannot try to reverse engineer our user's identity», — said co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman, referring to companies that pay to use Reddit data. «In particular, they cannot use the data for targeted advertising and cannot create a competitor to Reddit».
Huffman also stated that Reddit will not share personal information such as private messages, email addresses or phone numbers. In the first quarter, Reddit had more than 82.7 million daily users worldwide, up 37% from a year earlier.
However, the site reminded users that this «essentially» public platform. «Most of the platform is public and accessible to everyone, even without an account», — states the company's content policy.
Huffman noted that Google was a good partner, but other companies «took advantage» Reddit, collecting site data without permission to train AI models, or using platform content without sending users back to the site.
«We are not against using data to train AI, — Huffman said. — We just want to do it on clear terms».
Earlier this year, the Federal Trade Commission began investigating Reddit's plans to license its content. Huffman said talks are in the early stages and declined to share details. The company previously said it did not believe it engaged in unfair or deceptive practices.
Reddit's artificial intelligence licensing business is small but growing. Huffman didn't disclose details of the Google deal, but noted that typical terms could range from how long a Reddit summary can appear in Google search to whether the licensee must display Reddit branding in AI-generated results.
Reddit has signed licensing agreements totaling $203,000,000 for a period of two to three years. The company earned approximately $20,000,000 in AI content deals last quarter and expects to generate more than $60,000,000 by the end of the year.