Pinterest rolls out new terms and conditions, actually makes things better

Pinterest has updated its terms and conditions as well as its privacy policy. So what? People change their terms and conditions all the time right? What’s so special about a few more lines of text at the bottom of page?

Here’s the thing, Pinterest’s new policies lean a lot more toward Google’s motto of “Do no evil” than the internet giant’s own recent privacy policy updates do.

The social network says the changes were made to be “easier to understand and better reflect the direction our company is headed in the future”. Some of the changes include:

• Our original Terms stated that by posting content to Pinterest you grant Pinterest the right for to sell your content. Selling content was never our intention and we removed this from our updated Terms.
• We updated our Acceptable Use Policy and we will not allow pins that explicitly encourage self-harm or self-abuse.
• We released simpler tools for anyone to report alleged copyright or trademark infringements.
• Finally, we added language that will pave the way for new features such as a Pinterest API and Private Pinboards.

Nothing objectionable there. In fact, the changes sound like a set of rules instilled by a wise uncle.

Whether these changes are because Pinterest sincerely cares about its users, or because of pressure from those users, there’s little doubt that these are good changes.

Up until now, Pinterest has relied on a standard set of terms and conditions. The social network’s rapid growth evidently meant that these were no longer useable. Pinterest is, in fact, the second fastest site to go past 10-million unique visitors a month.

It has also become a bigger referrer of traffic than Twitter as well as Google+, YouTube, and LinkedIn combined.